Lover Awakened On Hold
by LKCLDC
Summary: Dimitri was held as a blood slave centuries ago, and it still haunts him to this day. Rose, captured by Dimitri's enemy, fights to stay alive and prays for someone to save her before it's to late. Can Dimitri save her? Can Rose save him from himself before it's to late? Will he accept her love or push her away. Mature scenes will be marked. OOC!
1. Chapter 1

**Ok guy's I know I haven't finished my other story, but I'm kind of in a slump on it. So I decided to write this one. Now if you have ever read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series then you know this is Bella, and Zsadist's story but I thought that it would go well with Dimitri and Rose as well. It is kind of a crossover between the two. The story has all of VA's characters but the plot is BDBH's. **

**Rose and the rest of the gang are vampires but have to feed from the opposite sex of their race, and are constantly hunter by the lessening society, the undead. Rose isn't the badass we all know her to be, but Dimitri, Adrian, Christian, Eddie are all very much bad ass. Now some of the characters are mine since there was none in the VA series I could use. **

**Dimitri is definitely in a different light in this story and very OOC but I guess we will see how it works out.**

**Let me know what you think of the story, whether I should continue or not bother with it at all. Review!**

**I do not own Vampire Academy, or Black Dagger Brotherhood!**

**Love you guys!**

Chapter One

"Damn it, Dimitri! Don't jump—'

Adrian's voice barely carried over the sound of the car crash in front of them. And it definitely didn't stop his twin, Dimitri, from jumping out of the Escalade while the vehicle was still flying fifty miles an hour.

"Eddie, he's out! One-eighty us!"

Adrian's shoulder slammed against the window as Eddie sent the SUV into a controlled skid. The headlights swung around and caught Dimitri rolling on the snow-covered asphalt in a ball. Split second later he sprang to his feet and hauled ass, gunning for the steaming, crumpled sedan that now had a pine tree for a hood ornament.

Adrian kept an eye on his twin and went for his seat belt. The _lessers_ they'd chased out to Portland's rural edges might have just had their ride screwed by the laws of physics, but that didn't mean they were out of commission. Those undead bastards were durable.

As the Escalade heaved to a stop, Phury popped his door while going to his Beretta. No telling how many _lessers_ were in the car or what kind of munitions they had. The vampire race's enemies traveled in packs and were always armed—_holy hell! _Three of the pale-haired slayers got out, and only the driver looked wobbly.

The goat-fuck odds didn't slow D down. Suicidal maniac that he was, he headed right for the undead triangle with nothing but a black dagger in his hand.

Adrian tore across the road, hearing Eddie pound it out behind him. Except they weren't needed.

As silent flurries swirled in the air, and the sweet smell of pine mingled with leaking gas from the busted car, D took down all three _lessers _with just the knife. He sliced the tendons behind their knees so they couldn't run, broke their arms so they couldn't fight back, and dragged them across the ground until they were lined up like gruesome dolls.

Took four and a half minutes tops, and including stripping them of their IDs. Then Dimitri paused to catch his breath. As he looked down at the oil spill of black blood smudged across the while snow, steam rose from his shoulders, a curiously gently mist teased by the cold wind.

Adrian holstered the Beretta on his hip and felt nauseous, like he'd hammered a six-pack of bacon grease. Rubbing his sternum, he looked left, then right. The road was dead quiet this time of night and this far outside of Portland. Human witnesses were unlikely. Deer didn't count.

He knew what was coming next. Knew better than to try and stop it.

Dimitri knelt down over one of the _lessers_, his scarred face distorted with hatred, his ruined upper lip curled back, his fangs long as a tiger's. He would of looked like the grim reaper, like death, with the hollows under his cheek bones, but his hair kept him from that. He had long dark hair that touched the underside of his chin. Wearing only a black turtleneck and loose black pants, he was more armed than dressed: The Black Dagger Brotherhood's signature blade holster crisscrossed over his chest, and two more knives were strapped on his thighs. He also sported a gun belt with two SIG saucers.

Not that he ever used the nine-millimeters, though. He liked to get personal when he killed. Actually, it was the only time he ever got close to anyone.

D grabbed the _lessers_ by the lapels of its leather jacket and jerked the slayer's torso off the ground, getting mouth-to-mouth tight.

"Where is the female?" When there was no answer other than an evil laugh, D cold cocked the slayer. The crack echoed through the trees, a stark sound like a branch snapping in half. "_Where is the female?"_

The slayer's mocking grin jacked D's rage so high he became his own arctic circle. The air around his body grew magnetically charged and colder than the night. Snowflakes no longer fell anywhere near him, as if they disintegrated in the force of his anger.

Adrian heard a soft rasp and glanced over his shoulder. Eddie was lighting up a hand-rolled, the tattoos around his left temple and the goatee around his mouth getting highlighted in the orange glow.

At the sound of another fist pop, Eddie took a deep drag and shifted his ice blue eyes over. "You okay there, Adrian?"

No, he wasn't. D's savage nature had always been the stuff of a morality tale. But lately he'd become so violent he was hard to watch in action. The bottomless, soulless pit of him had been on a rampage ever since Rose had been abducted by the _lessers_.

And still they hadn't found her. The Brothers had no leads, no info, no nothing. Even with D's hard-core questioning.

Adrian was a mess about the abduction. He hadn't known Rose for long, but she'd been so lovely, a female of worth from the highest level aristocracy within the race. Though to him she'd been more than her lineage. So much more. She'd reached beyond his vow of celibacy to the male beneath the discipline, stirring up something deep. He was as desperate as Dimitri was to find her, but after six weeks, he'd lost faith that she'd survived. The _lessers _were torturing vampires for information on the Brotherhood, and like all civilians, she'd known little about the Brothers. Surely she would have been killed by now.

His only hope was that she hadn't endured days and days of hell before she went unto the Fade.

"What did you do with the female?" Dimitri growled to the next slayer. When all that came back at him was a "Fuck you, " D pulled a Tyson and bit the bastard.

Why Dimitri cared about a missing civilian female, no one in the Brotherhood could understand. He was knows for his misogyny…hell, he was feared for it. Why Rose mattered to him was anyone's guess. Then again, no one, not even Adrian, as his twin, could predict the males reactions.

While echoes of D's brutal work cut through the isolation of the forest, Adrian felt himself cracking under the interrogation even as the _lessers_ stayed strong and gave up no information.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," he said under his breath.

Dimitri was the only thing he had in his life other than the Brotherhood's mission to protect the race against the _lessers_. Every day Adrian slept alone, if he slept at all. Food gave him little pleasure. Females were our because of his celibacy. And every second he was worried about what Dimitri would pull next and who would get hurt in the process. He felt like he was dying from a thousand cuts, slowly bleeding out. A target by proxy for all his twin's murderous intent.

Eddie reached out with a gloved hand and clasp Adrian's throat. "Look at me, my man."

Adrian glanced over and cringed. The brother's left eye, the one with the tattoos around it, dilated until there was nothing but a black void.

"Eddie, no…I don't…" C_rap_. He didn't need to hear about the future right now. Didn't know how he would handle the fact that things were only going to get worse.

"The snow falls slowly tonight," Eddie said, rubbing his thumb back and forth over a thick jugular vein.

Adrian blinked as an odd calm came over him, his heart slowing to the rhythm of his brother's thumb. "What?"

"The snow…it falls so slowly."

"Yes…yes, it does."

"And we've had a lot of snow this year, haven't we?"

"Uh…yes."

"Yeah…lot of snow, and there's going to be more. Tonight. Tomorrow. Next month. Next year. The stuff comes when it comes and falls there it will."

"That's right," Adrian said softly. "There's no stopping it."

"Not unless you're the ground." The thumb stopped. "My brother, you don't look like the earth to me. You're not stopping him. Ever."

A series of pops and flashes broke out as D stabbed the _lessers _ in the chest and the bodies disintegrated. Then there was only the hiss from the shattered car's radiator and the heavy pump of D's breathing.

Like a wraith he rose from the blackened ground, the blood of _lessers_ streaking his face and his forearms. His aura was a shimmering haze of violence that warped the scenery behind him, the forest beyond him wavy and indistinct where it bracketed his body.

"I'm going downtown," he said, wiping his blade on his thigh, "to look for more."

It took Rose awhile to realize it, but she had a bizarre power over her captor, and after some time had passed, she'd started using it. At first she pushed him to test boundaries. Later she tormented him for no other reason than that she hated him and wanted to make him hurt.

For some reason the _lesser_ who had taken her…loved her. With all his heart. He yelled at her sometimes, and he did terrify her when he was in one of his moods, but the harder she was on him, the better he treated her. When she withheld her eyes from him, he'd go into a tailspin of anxiety. When he brought her fights and she refused them, he wept. With increasing fervor, he worried over her and begged for her attention and curled up against her, and when she shut him out, he crumbled.

Toying with his emotions was her whole, hateful world, and the cruelty that fed her was killing her. Once she'd been a living thing, a daughter, a sister…a _someone_… Now she was hardening, setting like concrete in the midst of her nightmare. Embalmed.

Dear Virgin in the Fade, she knew he wasn't ever going to let her go. And sure as if he'd killed her outright, he'd taken her future. All she had now was just this God-awful, infinite present. With him. Nathan.

Panic, an emotion she had't felt for a while, surged into her chest.

Desperate to go back to the numbness, she concentrated on how cold it was in the earth. The _lesser_ kept her dressed in clothes he had taken from her own drawers and closet, and she was insulated by long johns and fleeces and warm socks and boots. Except, even with all that, the chill was relentless, sneaking through the layers, burrowing into her bones, turning her marrow into an icy slush.

Her thought shifted to her house, where she had lived for such a short time. She remembered the cheery fired she'd made in the hearth in the living room and the happiness she'd felt to be on her own… these were bad visions, bad memories. They reminded her of her old life, of her mother…of her brother.

God, Denis. Denis had driven her crazy with all his domineering behavior, but he'd been right. If she'd stayed with the family, she never would have met Lissa, the human that lived next door. And she never would have crossed the meadow between their houses that night for a walk. And she never would have run into the _lesser_… so she never would have ended up both dead and breathing.

She wondered how long her brother had looked for her. Had he given up by now? Probably. Not even Denis could keep going for so long without hope.

She bet he'd looked for her, but she was glad in a way that he hadn't found her. Although he was highly aggressive male, he was a civilian and liable to get hurt if he came to rescue her. Those _lessers_ were strong. Cruel and powerful. No, to get her back it would take something equal to the monster that had taken her.

An imagine of Dimitri came to mind, clear as a photograph. She saw his savage black eyes. The scar that ran down his face and distorted his upper lip. The tattooed blood-slave bands around his throat and wrists. And his muscled, too-lean body.

She though of his vicious, uncompromising will and all of his high-test hatred. He was terrifying, a horror of her species. Ruined, not broken, in the words of his twin. But that was what would have made him such a good savior. He alone was a match for the _lesser_ who'd taken her. Dimitri's kind of brutality was probably the only thing that could have gotten her out, though she knew better than to think that he'd ever try to find her. She was just some civilian whom he'd met twice before.

And the second time, he'd made her swear she would never come near him again.

Fear closed in on her, and she tried to bridle the emotion by telling herself that Denis was still searching for her. And that he would call upon the Brotherhood if he found any clues as to where she was. Then maybe Dimitri would come after her, because he was required to, as part of his job.

"Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?" The shaky male voice was muted, the tone tinny.

It was the newest captive, she thought. They always tried to reach out in the beginning.

Rose cleared her throat. "I am…here."

There was a pause. "Oh, my God…are you the female that was taken? Are you…Rose?"

Hearing her name was a shock. Hell, the _lesser_ had been calling her _wife_ for so long, she'd almost forgotten she'd gone by something else. "Yes…yes, I am."

"You're still alive."

Well, her heart was still beating, at any rate. "Do I know you?"

"I-I went to your funeral. With my parents.

Rose started to tremble. Her mother and he brother…had put her to rest. But then, of course they would have. Her mother was deeply religious, a great believer in the Old World. Once she was convinced her daughter was dead, she would have insisted on the proper ceremony so that Rose could enter the Fade.

_Oh…God._ Thinking they'd given up and knowing they had were two such different things. No one was coming after her. Ever.

She heard something weird. And she realized she was crying.

"I'm going to escape," the male said with force. "And I'll take you with me."

Rose let her knees give out, and she slid down the ribbed wall of the pipe, that was in the ground that she was kept in, until she was lodged at the bottom. Now she really was dead, wasn't she? Dead and buried.

How horribly appropriate that she was stuck in the earth.

_**What did you guys think? Let me know **_


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok so I realize there is some confusion in where this story is going and I guess I didn't think it out to well when I started it out. I just assumed everyone would understand lol. So my bad. **

**So I'm going to try and explain a few things and then you might be able to go back and read Chapter One and it might make more sense to you.**

**A Lesser-A human that has made a deal with the Omega (the devil) and has lost their soul and bleeds black oily blood, and smells like baby powder. They are stronger than the average human, live to be thousands of years old and their eyes, skin, and hair all pale out. They are the enemy of the black dagger brotherhood.**

**Black Dagger Brotherhood-Vampires that can only feed on the opposite sex of their kind. They are different from the others of their kind, taller, stronger, faster, etc. They keep the race safe from the lessening society. When the males find their one female and bond with them, they send a sent out of their skin that tells other males to stay back. **

**If you need to know anything or if you have any questions do not be afraid to message me and I'll answer them for you **

**Love you Guys! Review!**

Chapter Two

Dimitri's boots carried him through an alley off Trade Street, the heavy soles stomping through the icy ripples of tire treads. It was pitch-dark, because there were no windows in the brick buildings on either side of him and the clouds had shut out the moon. Yet as he walked alone, his night vision was perfect, penetrating everything. Just like his rage.

Black blood. What he needed was more black blood. He needed it on his hands and kicking up into his face and splattering onto his clothes. He needed oceans of it to run onto the ground and seep into the earth. To honor Rose's memory, he would make the slayers bleed, each death his offering to her.

He knew she no longer lived, knew in his heart she must have been killed in a gruesome way. So why did he always start off asking those bastards where she was? Hell, he didn't know. It was just the first thing that came out of his mouth, no matter how many times he told himself she was gone.

And he was going to keep asking those fuckers questions. He wanted to know the _where _and _how_ and _with what_ they'd gotten her. The information would only eat at him, but he needed to know. _Had_ to know. And one of them was going to talk eventually.

D stopped. Sniffed the air. Prayed for the sweet smell of baby powder to drift into his nose. Damn it, he couldn't stand this…not knowing any longer.

But then he laughed in a nasty crack. Yeah, the hell he couldn't take it. Thanks to his hundred years of careful training with the Mistress, there was no level of shit he hadn't survived. Physical pain, mental anguish, cringing depths of humiliation and degradation, hopelessness, helplessness: _Been there, sweated that._

So he could survive this.

He looked up at the sky, and as his head shifted back he swayed. With a quick hand he steadied himself against a dumpster, then took a deep breath and waited to see if the drunken sensation passed. No luck.

Feeding time. Again.

Cursing, he hoped he could squeeze out another night or two. Sure, he'd been dragging his body around by force of will the last couple of weeks, but that was nothing unusual. And tonight he just didn't want to deal with the bloodlust.

_Come on, come on…focus, asshole._

He forced himself to keep going, stalking the downtown alleys, weaving in and out of the dangerous urban maze of Portland.

By three A.M., he was so blood-hungry he felt stoned, and that was the only reason he gave in. he couldn't stomach the disassociation, the numbness in his body. It reminded him too much of the opium stupors he'd been forced into as a blood slave.

Walking as quickly as he could, he headed for ZeroSum, the brotherhood's current downtown hangout. The bouncers let him bypass the wait line, easy access being one of the perks of folds who dropped the kind of cash the Brothers did. Hell, Adrian's red smoke habit alone was worth a couple grand a month, and Eddie only liked the buzz that came from top-shelf booze. Then there were D's own regular purchases.

The club was hot and dark inside, a kind of humid, tropical cave with techno music twirling in the air. Humans crowded the dance floor, sucking on lollipop rings, guzzling water, sweating while they moved with pulsing pastel lasers. All around, bodies were up against the walls, paired off or in triplicate, writhing, touching.

D headed for the VIP lounge, and the human horde gave way before him, parting like velvet cloth torn open. Thought high on X and coke, those overheated bodies still had enough survival instinct to sop him as a coffin waiting to happen.

In the back, a bouncer with a buzz cut let him into the best real estate in the club. Here, in relative quiet, twenty tables with banquet seating were spaced far apart, with only the black marble tops spotlight from the ceiling. The Brotherhood's both was right by the fire exit, and he wasn't surprised to see Eddie there with shot glasses in front of him. Adrian's martini glass was sitting empty.

Neither looked happy to see him, and most weren't, they looked like they'd been hoping to take a load off and he'd just thrown them both an engine block.

D sat down on the left and leaned back, taking himself out of the light falling on the glossy table. As he glanced around, he recognized the faces of meaningless strangers. The VIP section had a hardcore of regulars, but none of the big spenders interacted much beyond their tight groups. In fact, the whole club was permeated by a "don't ask, don't tell" vibe, which was one of the reasons the Brothers came here. Even though ZeroSum was owned by a vampire, they needed to keep a low profile about who they were.

Over the last century or so, the Black Dagger Brotherhood had become secretive about their identities within the race. There were rumors, of course, and civilians knew a few of their names, but everything was kept on the QT. The subterfuge had started when the race had fragmented about a century ago and tragically, trust had become an issue within the species. But now, though, there was another reason. The _lesser_ were torturing civilians for information on the Brotherhood, so it was imperative to keep on the down-low.

As a result, the few vampires who worked this club weren't sure the big males in leather who sucked back drinks and dropped bills were Black Dagger members. And fortunately, social custom, if not the way the brothers looked, prevented questions.

Dimitri shifted in the booth, impatient. He hated the club; he really did. Hated having so many bodies so close to his. Hated the noise. The smells.

In a chatty tangle, a trio of human females approached the Brothers' table. The three of them were working tonight, though what they were serving up didn't fit in a glass. These were your typical high-class hookers: hair extensions, fake breasts, faces molded by plastic surgeons, clothes out of a spray can. There were a lot of their kind of movable feast in the club, particularly in the VIP section. The Rev, who owned and ran ZeroSum, believed in product diversification as a business strategy, offering their bodies as well as the alcohol and the drugs. The vampire also loaned money and had a team of bookies and did God knew what else from his back office in service to his mostly human clientele.

As the three prostitutes smiled and talked, they presented themselves for a buy. But none of them were what D was looking for, and Eddie didn't look them up either. Two minutes later, the women headed off to the next booth.

D was damned hungry, but he had one nonnegotiable when it came to feeding.

"Hey, daddies," another woman said. "Any of you looking for some company?"

He glanced up. This human female had a hard face to match her hard body. Clothes were black leather. Eyes were glassy. Hair was short.

_Fucking perfect._

D put his hand into the pool of light on the table, lifted two fingers, then rapped twice on the marble with his knuckles. As Eddie and Adrian shifting in the seat, their tension annoyed him.

The female smiled. "Well, all right."

Dimitri leaned forward and uncoiled to his full height, his face becoming illuminated by the spotlight. The whore's expression froze solid as she took a step back.

At that moment Rev came through a door to the left, his spectacular mane of hair reflecting the shifting lights.

The owner of the club, Rev, came to the table smiling tightly. Eyes the color of amethysts missed nothing about the prostitute's hesitation. "Evening, gentlemen. You going somewhere, Katie?"

Katie's bravado came back with a vengeance. "Wherever he wants, boss."

"Right answer."

_Enough with the yakkies, _D thought. "Outside. Now."

He pushed open the fire door and followed her into the alley behind the club. The December wind blew through the loose jacket he'd put on to cover his weapons, but he didn't care about the cold, and neither did Katie. Even though the icy gusts teased her cropped hair and she was close to naked, she faced him without shivering, chin up.

Now that she'd committed herself, she was ready for him. A real professional

"We do it here," he said, stepping into the shadows. He took two one-hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and held them out. Her fingers crushed them before she disappeared the cash into her leather skirt.

"How do you want it?" she asked, sidling up to him, reaching for his shoulders.

He spun her around to the brick wall, face-first. "I do the touching. Not you."

Her body tensed and her fear tingled in his nose, a sulfurous sting. But her voice was strong.

"Watch it asshole. I come back with bruises and he'll hunt you down like an animal."

"Don't worry. You're going to walk away from this just fine."

But she was still scared. And he was blessedly numb to the emotion.

Usually fright in a female was the only thing that could turn him on, the only way the _it_ in his pants would get hard. Lately, though, the trigger wasn't working, which was just fine with him. he despised the response of the thing behind his zipper, and because most females were scared shitless of him, the _it_ got aroused a hell of a lot more often than he wanted. Not at all would have been better. Shit, he was probably the only male on the planet who wanted to be impotent.

"Tilt your head to the side," he said. "Ear to your shoulder."

Slowly she complied, exposing her neck to him. This was why he'd chosen her. Short hair meant he wouldn't have to touch anything to clear his way. He hated having to put his hands on them anywhere.

As he stared at her throat, his thirst rose and his fangs elongated. God, he was dry enough to drain her.

"What are you going to do?" she snapped. "Bite me?"

"Yeah."

He struck quickly and held her in place as she thrashed. To make it easier on her, he calmed her with his mind, relaxing her, giving her a kind of high she was no doubt very familiar with. While she settled down, he swallowed as much as he could without gagging; tasting the coke and alcohol in her blood as well as the antibiotics she was on.

When he was finished, he licked the puncture marks so the healing process would get its groove on and she wouldn't bleed out. Then he popped her collar to hide the bite, cleaned himself from her memory, and sent her back into the club.

Alone again, he sagged against the bricks. Human blood was so weak, it barely got him what he needed, but he wasn't about to drink from females of his own species. Not again. Ever.

He looked up at the sky. The clouds that had brought the flurries earlier were gone, and between the buildings he could see a slice of the cleat pincushion of stars. The constellations told him he had only two hours left to be out.

When he had the strength, he closed his eyes and dematerialized to the only place he wanted to be.

Rose's house.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok guys I love the reviews but it would be awesome to have some more, so tell everyone you know to read it Let me know what you think about this chapter. It will jump back and forth between Rose, and Dimtri's POV, but just in case you're getting itchy for her to be found, it's going to happen soon So hang in there!**

**Remember if anyone has any questions and not sure if you understand where or what is going on, ask me!**

**Chapter Three**

It was hours later, or at least is seemed like hours, when Rose awoke to the sound of the mesh plate, on top of the metal tube she was being kept in, sliding back. The sweet smell of the _lesser_ drifted down to her, overpowering the pungent, damp earth.

"Hello, wife." The harness around her torso tightened as he lifted her out.

One look into his pale brown eyes and she knew now was not the time to push any limits. He was wired, his smile way to excited. And unbalanced was not good with him.

"Hello, David."

He closed his eyes. He loved it when she said his name. "I have something for you."

He left the straps on her and led her over to the stainless-steel table in the center of the room. When he handcuffed her to the thing, she knew it must be dark out still. He got lax about restraining her only during the day, when she couldn't run.

The _lesser_ went out the door and left it open wide. Shuffling and grunting noises followed, and the he came back dragging a groggy civilian vampire. The male's head rolled on his shoulders as if it were on a loose hinge, his feet trailing behind at the toes. He was dressed in what had been nice black slacks and a cashmere sweater, but now the cloths were torn and wet and blood-marked.

With a moan choking in her throat, Rose backed away until her tether prevented her from going any farther. She couldn't watch the torture; she just couldn't.

The _lesser_ muscled the male over to the table and laid him out flat on it. Chains were looped with efficiency around his wrists and ankles, and the links were secured with metal clips. As soon as the civilian's hazy eyes latched on to the shelves with the tools, he began to panic. He pulled against his steel binds, making them rattle against the metal table.

Rose met the vampire's brown eyes. He was terrified, and she wanted to reassure him, but she knew that wasn't smart. The _lesser_ was watching her reaction, waiting.

And then he took out a knife.

The vampire on the table screamed as the slayer leaned over him. But all Nathan did was yank up the male's sweater and slit it open, exposing his chest and throat.

Though Rose tried to fight it, bloodlust stirred in her gut. It had been a long time since she'd fed, maybe months, and all the stress she'd been under meant her body needed badly what only drinking from the opposite sex could give her.

The _lesser_ took her arm and pulled her around, the handcuff sliding down the table's rail with her.

"I figured you must be thirsty by now." The slayer reached out and rubbed her mouth with his thumb. "So I got this for you to feed from."

Her eyes rounded.

"That's right. He's just for you. A present. He's fresh, young. Better than the two I have in the holes now. And we can keep him as long as he serves you." The _lesser_ pushed her upper lip off her teeth. "Damned…look at these fangs getting longer. Hungry, aren't you, wife?"

His hand clamped on the back of her neck and he kissed her, licking at her with his tongue. Somehow she kept her gag reflex down until he lifted his head.

"I've always wondered what this look like," he said, eyes roaming around her face. "Is it going to turn me on?" I'm not sure whether I want it to or not. I think I like you pure. But you've got to do this, right? Or you're going to die."

He pushed her head down toward the male's throat. When she resisted, the _lesser_ laughed softly and spoke into her ear.

"That's my girl. If you'd gone willingly to him, I think I would've beaten you out of jealously." He stroked her hair with his free hand. "Now drink."

Rose looked into the vampire's eyes. _Oh, God…_

The male gad stopped struggling and was staring up at her, his eyes about to pop out of his skull. Hungry though she was, she couldn't bear the idea of taking from him.

The _lesser_ gripped her neck hard, and his voice got nasty. "You better drink from him. I went to a lot of fucking trouble to get this for you."

She opened her mouth, her tongue like sandpaper from the thirst. "No."

The _lesser_ put the knife up to her eyes. "One way or the other he's going to bleed in the next minute and a half. If I go to work on him, he's not going to last long. So maybe you want to try, _wife?"_

Tears speared her eyes at the violation she would perpetrate.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered to the chained male.

Her head was yanked back, and the _lesser's _palm came at her face from the left. The slap grabbed a chunk of her hair to keep her from falling. He pulled hard, arching her against him. She had no idea where the knife he'd had went.

"You do not apologize to that." He clapped his hand on her chin, digging his fingertips into the hollows under her cheekbones. "I'm the only one you worry about. We clear? I said, _are we clear?"_

"Yes," she gasped.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, Nathan."

He took her free arm and bent it behind her back. Pain shot into her shoulder. "Tell me you love me."

From out of nowhere, anger lit off a firestorm in her chest. She would _never_ say that word to him. _Never._

"Tell me you love me," he yelled, blasting the demand into her face.

Her eyes flashed and she bared her fangs. The instant she did his excitement shot out f control, his body starting to tremble, his breath falling into a fast pant. He was instantly primed to fight her, aroused for the battle, ready as if he were erect for sex. This was the part of the relationship he lived for. He _loved_ to fight her. Had told her that his former woman hadn't been as strong as she was, hadn't been able to last as long before passing out.

"_Tell me you love me."_

"I. Despise. You."

As he lifted his hand and made a fist out of it, she glared up at him, steady, clam, ready to take the hit. They stayed like that for a long time, their bodies suspended in twin arcs like a heart, tied by the strings of violence that ran between them. In the background the civilian male on the table whimpered.

Suddenly the _lesser's _arms shot around her and he buried his face in her neck. "I love you," he said. "I love you so much… I can't live without you—"

"Holy shit," someone said.

The _lesser_ and Rose both looked to the voice. The persuasion center's door was wide-open and a pale-haired slayer was stopped dead in its jamb.

The guy started laughing and then said the three words that triggered everything that followed: "I'm gonna tell."

Nathan went after the other _lesser_ at a dead run, chasing him outside.

Rose didn't hesitate as the first cracks of the fight rang out. She went to work on the chains that bound the civilian's right wrist, flipping the clips free, unraveling the links. Neither of them said a word as she freed his hand and then started on his right ankle. As soon as he could, the male worked on himself. The second he was free, he popped off the table and looked at the steel handcuffs that tied her.

"You can't save me," she said. "He has the only keys."

"I can't believe you're still alive. I heard about you—"

"Go, go on—"

"He'll kill you."

"No, he won't." He was just going to make her wish she were dead. "_Go!_ That fight isn't going to last forever."

"I'll come back for you."

"Just get home." When he opened his mouth, she said, "Shut the hell up and focus. If you can, tell my family I'm not dead. _Go!"_

The male had tears in his eyes as he closed them. He took two long breaths…and dematerialized.

Rose started shaking so badly she fell down on the floor, her arm stretching over her head from where it was handcuffed to the table.

The noises of the fight outside abruptly stopped. There was a silence and then a flash of light and a popping sound. She knew without a doubt that her _lesser_ had won.

_Oh, God…_This was going to be bad. This was going to be a very, very bad day.

Dimitri finished his time at Rose's house, taking in everything that was there, for what seemed like the millionth time. He went there almost every day since she'd been taken. It was just one way to stay close to her.

He dematerialized to the dreary, Gothic monster the Brotherhood all lived in. The mansion looked like something out of a horror movie, all gargoyles and shadows and leaded-glass windows. In front of the mountain of stone there was a courtyard full of cars, as well as a gatehouse that was Eddie's crash pad. A twenty-foot-tall wall encased the compound, and there was a double-gated entry as well as a number of nasty surprises set up to deter unwanted visitors.

D walked over to the main house's steel-cored doors and opened one side of them. Stepping into the vestibule, he punched in a code on a keypad as he emerged into the foyer. The soaring space with its jewel-toned colors and its gold leafing and its wild, mosaic floor was like that crowded bar: too much stimulation.

To his right, he heard the sounds of a full dining room: the soft clinking of silver on china, indistinct words from Tamera, a chuckle from Abe…then Lev's bass voice cutting it. There was a pause, probably because Artur was making a face, and then everyone's laughter mingled, spilling out like gleaming marbles across a clean floor.

He wasn't interested in tangling with his brothers, much less eating with them. It almost seemed like he was the only one worried about where in the hell Rose was, or what happened to her.

D hit the staircase, taking two steps at a time. The faster he went the more muted the meal's noises became, and the quiet suited him just fine. At the top of the stair's he headed left and then went down a long hallway marked by Roman statuary. The marble athletes and warriors were illuminated by recessed lighting, their while marble arms and legs and chests forming a pattern against the blood red wall.

The room he slept in was at the end of the corridor, and as he opened the door he hit a wall of cold. He never turned on the heat or the air-conditioning, just like he never slept in the bed or used the phone or put anything in the antique bureaus. The closet was the only thing he needed, and he went there to disarm his weapons and ammo were kept in the fireproof cabinet in the back, and his four shirts and three sets of leathers hung closely together. With nothing much in the walk-in, he often thought of bones as he went inside, all the empty hangers and brass rods looking spindly and fragile.

He stripped and showered. He was hungry for good, but he liked to keep himself that way. The pang of starvation, the dry yearning of thirst…these denials that were within his control always eased him. Hell, if he could pull off not sleeping, he'd take that away from himself, too. And the damned bloodlust…

He wanted to be clean. On the inside.

When he got out of the shower he ran a quick comb through his hair, and then done a quick shave. Naked, chilled, logy from the feeding, he went over to his pallet on the floor. As he stood above the two folded blankets that offered as much cushioning as a pair of Band-Aids, he thought of Rose's bed, the one he often laid in when he was walking around her house. White. All white.

He had liked to think he could smell her in it. Sometimes he'd even rolled around on top, the softness giving way under his hard body. It was almost as if she had touched him then, and better than if she actually had. He couldn't stand to have anyone put their hands to him…though he wished he'd let Rose find a piece of his flesh just once. With her, he might have been able to handle it.

His eyes shifted to the skull that sat on the floor next to the pallet. The eye sockets were black holes, and he pictured the iris-and-pupil combination that had once stared out at him. between the teeth there was a strip of black leather about two inched wide. Traditionally words of devotion to the deceased were inscribed on it, but the strap these jaws but down on was blank.

As he lay down, he put his head next to the thing and the past came back, the year 1802…

**Ok the next chapter will be a flash back and might explain why Dimitri is the way he is now, well actually I know it will. They will also be saving Rose Yay! So who is liking the story? Anything you want changed?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok guys this flashback is rated M so if you don't want to read it don't. I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I have and please let me know what you think of it, I wasn't sure. Thank guys.**

**I do not own Vampire Academy, or Black Dagger Brotherhood.**

Chapter Four

_The slave came partially awake. He was flat on his back and he ached all over, though he couldn't think of why…until he remember going into his transition the night before. For hours he' been crippled by the pain of his muscles sprouting, his bones thickening, his body transforming in something huge._

_ Strange…verily, his neck and his wrists hurt in a differing way._

_ He opened his eyes. The ceiling was far above him and marked with thin black bars inset into stone. When he turned his head, he saw an oak door with more bars running vertically down its thick planks. On the wall, too, there were strips of steel…In the dungeon. He was in the dungeon, but why? And he'd best get to his duties before…_

_ He tried to sit up, but his forearms and shins were pinned down. Eyes going wide, he jerked._

_ "Mind y'self!" It was the blacksmith. And he was tattooing black bands on the slave's drinking points. _

_ Oh, dear Virgin in the Fade, no. Not this…_

_ The slave fought against the holds, and the other male looked up, annoyed. "Settle! I'll not be whipped for a fault that'd be not mine own."_

_ "I beg of you…" the slave's voice didn't sound right. It was too deep. "Have mercy."_

_ He heard a soft, female laugh. The Mistress of the household had entered the cell, her long gown of white silk trailing behind her on the stone floor, her blond hair down around her shoulders._

_ The slave dropped his eyes as was appropriate and realized he was wholly unclothed. Flushing, embarrassed, he wished he were covered._

_ "You wake," she said, approaching him._

_ He couldn't fathom why she had come to see one of such lowly station as himself. He was a mere kitchen boy, someone beneath even the maids who cleaned her privy quarters._

_ "Look at me," the Mistress commanded._

_ He did as he was told, though it went against everything he'd ever known. He had never been allowed to meet her stare before. _

_ What he saw in it was a shock. She was looking at him in a way no female had ever regarded him. Greed marked the refined bones of her face, her dark gaze flowing with someone kind of intent he couldn't disern._

_ "Yellow eyes," she murmured. "How rare. How beautiful."_

_ Her hand landed on the slave's bare thigh. He twitched at the contact, feeling uneasy. This was wrong, he thought. She shouldn't be touching him there._

_ "What a magnificent surprise you've presented. Rest assured, I have fed well the one who brought you to my attention." _

_ "Mistress…I would beg you to let me go to work."_

_ "Oh, you will." Her hand drifted across the juncture of his pelvis, where his thighs met his hips. He jumped and heard the blacksmith's soft curse. "And what a boon for me. my blood slave fell prey to an unfortunate accident this day. As soon as his quarters are renewed, you shall be moved into them."_

_ The slave lost his breath. He'd known of the male she'd kept locked up, for he'd brought food to the cell. Sometimes, as he'd left the tray with the guards, he'd heard strange sounds coming out from behind the heavy door…_

_ His fear must have registered on the Mistress, because she leaned over him, getting close enough so he could smell her perfumed skin. She laughed softly as if she had taken a taste of his fright and the dish had pleased her._

_ "In truth, I cannot wait to have you." As she turned to leave, she glared at the blacksmith. "Mind what I said or I shall have you sent unto the dawn. Not one misstep with that needle. His skin is far too perfect to mar."_

_ The tattooing was finished soon therafter, and the blacksmith took the one candle with him, leaving the slave tied down on the table in the darkness._

_ He shook from despair and horror as his new station became real. He was now the lowest of the low, kept alive solely to feed another…and only the Virgin knew what else awaited him._

_ It was a long while before the door opened again and candlelight showed him that his future had arrived: the Mistress in a black robe with two males known for their love of their own sex._

_ "Cleanse him for me," she ordered._

_ The Mistress watched as the slave was washed and oiled, and she moved around his body as the candlelight did, ever shifting, never still. The slave trembled, hating the sensation of the males' hands on his face, his chest, his privates. He was fearful that one or both would try to take him in an un-holy way._

_ When they were finished, the taller of them said, "Shall we attempt him for you, Mistress?"_

_ "I shall keep him for myself this night."_

_ She dropped her robe and lithely got up onto the table, straddling the slave. Her hands sought his private flesh, and as she stroked him he was aware of the other males taking themselves in hand. When the slave remained flaccid, she covered him with her lips. The sounds in room were horrific, the moans of the males and the Mistress's mouth sucking and smacking._

_ The humiliation was complete as the slave started to cry, tears seeping out of the corners of his eyes, falling down his temples, landing in his ears. He had never been touched between his legs before. As a pretransition, male, his body had not been ready for or capable of mating, though that hadn't kept him from looking forward to someday being with a female. He'd always imagined that the joining would be wondrous, for in the slave quarters he had seen the pleasure act on occasion._

_ But now…to have the intimacy happening in this way, he was ashamed that he had dared to want something._

_ Abruptly, the Mistress released him and slapped him across the face. The palm print stung on his cheek as she got off the table._

_ "Bring me the salve," she snapped. "That thing of his knows not its function."_

_ One of the males came forward to the table with a small pot. The slave felt someone put a slippery hand on him, he wasn't sure who, and then there was a burning sensation. As a curious weight settled in his groin, he felt something shift on his thigh and then slowly move across his stomach._

_ "Oh…good Virgin in the Fade," one of the males said._

_ "Such size," the other breathed. "He would o'er-spill the depths of a well._

_A mighty swollen thing lying on his belly, the The Mistress's voice was likewise amazed. "Tis enormous."_

_ The slave lifted his head. There was a mighty swollen thing lying on his belly, the likes of which he had never seen before._

_ He lay back down against the table on the Mistress mounted his hips. This time he felt something engulf him, something wet. He put his head up again. She was astride him and he was…inside of her body. She moved against him, pumping up and down, panting. He was dimly aware that the other males in the room were moaning again, the guttural sounds growing louder as she moved faster and faster. And then there were shouts, hers, theirs._

_ The Mistress collapsed against the slave's chest. While she still breathed heavily, she said, "Hold his head down." _

_ One of the males put a palm on the slave's forehead and then stroked the slave's hair with his free hand. "So lovely. So Soft." _

_ The Mistress buried her face in the slave's neck and bit him. He cried out at the sting and the taking. He'd seen males and females drink from one another before, and it had always seemed…right. But this hurt and made him dizzy, and the harder she pulled at his vein, the more light-headed he became. _

_ He must have passed out, because when he woke up she was lifting her head and licking her lips. She climbed off him, robed herself, and the three of them left him alone in the dark. Moments later guards whom he recognized entered._

_ The other males refused to look at him, though he had been on friendly terms with them before because he had rendered them their ale. Now, thought, they kept their eyes averted and didn't speak. As he glanced down at his body, he was ashamed that whatever salve had been put on him was still working, that his private staff was still stiff and thick. _

_ The gloss on it nauseated him._

_ He desperately wanted to tell the males that it wasn't his fault, that he was trying to will the flesh down, but he was too mortified to speak as the guards released his arms and ankles from the table. When he stood up he sagged, because he'd been stretched out flat on his back for hours and was only a day past his transition. No one helped him as he struggled to stay upright, and he knew it was because they didn't want to touch him, didn't want to be near him now. He went to cover himself, but they shackled him in a practiced manner so he didn't have a free hand._

_ The shame got worse as he had to walk down the hall. He could feel the heavy weight at his hops bouncing with his footfalls, bobbing obscenely. Tears welled and slid down his cheeks, and one of the guards snorted with disgust._

_ The slave was taken to a different part of the castle, to another solid-walled room with inlaid steel bars. This one had a bed platform and a proper chamber pot and a rug and torches set high up on the walls. As he was brought in, so were food and water, the victuals left by a fellow kitchen boy he'd known all of his life. The pretransition male also refused to look at him._

_ The slave's hands were released and he was locked in._

_ Bereft and trembling, he went over to a corner and say on the floor. He cradled his body gently, for no one else would, and tried to be kind to this newly transitioned form of his…a form that had been used in a way that was so wrong._

_ As he rocked back and forth, he worried for his future. He'd never had any right, any learning, any identity. But at least before he'd been free to move around. And his body and his blood had been his own. _

_ The remembered sensation of those hands on his skin brought up a wave of nausea. He looked down at his private and realized he could still smell the Mistress on himself. He wondered how long the swelling would last._

_ And what would happen when she came back for him._

Dimitri rubbed his face and rolled over. She'd come back for him, all right. And she'd never come alone.

He closed his eyes against the recollections and tried to will himself to sleep. The last thing that flashed though his mind was a picture of Rose's house.

God, that place was so very empty, deserted though it was filled with things.

Soulless.

In a way, her house was just like him.

Adrian had been sitting talking to Eddie, drinking scotch and smoking a red smoke. God, he couldn't help the addiction that he had. It was terrible and he hated it, but couldn't live without it. Dimitri had spun him into the drug, not on purpose, but with his attitude and actions. Adrian smoked like a train and he knew there would be no stopping it until the day he died, which might be sooner rather than later with the heartache he was feeling over Rose's disappearance.

The phone rang on a desk full of computer equipment. Eddie was there technical support. He could work on anything. Hell, he made the CIA, Pentagon, and White House look like children's play with all of his 'toys' as he called them.

While Eddie answered the phone, Adrian kept thinking about Rose, and why Dimitri was acting like this. He knew Dimitri didn't care about himself, let alone another male, or female. Hell, he was acting almost like a bonded male, but Adrian knew that wasn't right.

Eddie hung the phone up without a good-bye and looked at Adrian, "Rose's alive."

Adrian whipped his head around and just stared at the male, trying to tell if he was just giving Adrian shit. But he quickly shut that thought out of his mind, he knew better with Eddie, and especially with something this serious.

"Civilian male was abducted from the alley behind ZeroSum tonight and taken to a place way out in the woods for the purpose of feeding Rose. He saw her. Talked with her. Somehow she let him go."

"Tell me he can find the place again," Adrian breathed, his throat closing with emotion.

"Yeah. He marked his way out, dematerializing two hundred yards at a time until he reached Route 22. He's emailing me the trail on a map. Damn smart for a civilian."

It was two hours later before Adrian had enough information to go to his twin's room. He figured there was no point in getting Dimitri agitated with a half-story, and it had taken a while for the plan to jell.

When he knocked and there wasn't an answer, he stepped inside and winced. The room was cold as a meat locker.

"Dimitri?"

D lay on a couple of folded blankets in the far corner, his naked body drawn up tightly against the chill in the room. There was a sumptuous bed not more than ten feet away from him, but it had never been used. D slept on the floor always, no matter where he lived.

Adrian walked over and knelt down beside his twin. He wasn't going to touch the male, especially when he would be cause unaware. D was likely to come to on the attack.

_My God,_ Adrian thought. Asleep like this, all his anger banked, D was almost frail.

Hell, take back the _almost_. Dimitri had always been so damned thin, so terribly lean. Now, though he was just big bones and veins. When had this happened?

"Dimitri? Wake up, my brother."

D stirred, black eyes opening slowly. Usually he came awake in a rush and at the slightest noise, but he'd fed, so he was sluggish.

"She's been found," Adrian said. "Rose's been found. She was alive as of early this morning."

D blinked a couple time, as if he weren't sure whether he was dreaming. Then he hefted his torso off the pallet. His nipple rings caught the light form the hall while he rubbed his face.

"What did you say?" He asked in a gravel voice.

"We have a bead on where Rose is. And confirmation that she's alive."

D grew more alert, his consciousness moving like a train, gathering speed, creating power with its momentum. With every second the force of him was coming back, the vicious vitality surging until he no longer looked weak at all.

"Where is she?" He demanded.

"In a one-room house in the woods. A civilian male got loose because she helped him escape."

D sprang to his feet, landing in a lithe punch to the floor. "How do I get to her?"

"The male who escaped e-mailed E the directions. But-"

D headed for his closet. "Get me a map."

"It's noontime, my brother."

D stopped. Abruptly, a blast of cold came out of his body, making the temperature of the room feel balmy. And those black eyes were dangerous as hammer claws when they flashed over his shoulder.

"Dimitri—think. You go out there right now, you'll fry."

D stood there naked, breathing deeply, his eyes narrow slits of rank hatred. When he finally spoke, his voice was a nasty growl.

"You better pray she's still alive."

Adrian shifted his eyes to the skull on the floor, thinking D had already proven just how good he was with decapitation.

"Did you hear me, brother?" The male snapped.

Adrian nodded, man he had a bad feeling about how this was going to play out.

**Ok so I'm a terrible person, and a liar, please, please, please forgive me! I am so exhausted and I just want to go to sleep, and almost three thousand words? I think I should get a little credit LOL Ok so I know this chapter was a little weird with the flashback, but these flashbacks will tell you why Dimitri is the way he is, so REVIEW and tell me how it was please! Thank you! I Love you guys! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok guys I put a small explanation of what some of the words in the story mean such as their transitions, the society and so on and so forth. It's posted on my profile page, so please check it out. **

**I want to say thank you to The Red Rose, Lulu, Macy, nightstarAlchemist, Megan Lyn, and everyone else who has reviwed! Thank you and keep continuing to review, and letting your friends know about this story!**

Chapter Five

Dimitri stared at the grandfather clock in the mansion's foyer. By the position of the hands he knew he had eight minutes before the sun was officially down. Thank God it was winter and the nights were long.

He eyed the double doors and knew just where he was going as soon as he could get through them. He'd memorized the location the civilian male had given them. Was going to dematerialize and be there in the blink of an eye.

Seven minutes.

It would be better to wait until the sky was all dark, but fuck that. The instant that godforsaken fireball slipped over the edge of the horizon, he was out. To hell with it if he ended up with a bitch of a tan.

Six minutes.

He rechecked the daggers on his chest. Took the SIG Sauer out of the holster at his right hip and ran through it one more time, then did the same for the one that was on the left. He felt for the throwing knife at the small of his back and the six-inch blade he had on his thigh.

Five minutes.

D cocked his head to the side, cracking his neck to loosen it up.

Four minutes.

_Fuck this._ He was going now—

"You'll fry," Adrian said from behind him.

D closed his eyes. His impulse was to lash out, and the urge grew irresistible as Adrian kept talking.

"D, my man, how're you going to help her if you fall flat on your face and start screaming?"

"Do you get off being a buzz kill? Or does it just come natural?" As D glared over his shoulder, he had a sudden memory of that one night Rose had come to the mansion before she had been taken. Adrian had seemed so taken with her, and D remembered the two of them standing together and talking, right where his boots were planted now. He'd watched them from the shadows, wanting her as she'd smiled and laughed with his twin.

D's voice got sharper. "I'd think you'd want to get her back, being that she was all into you and shit, thinking you were handsome. Or…maybe you want her to stay gone because of that. Did your vow of celibacy get shaken, my brother?"

As Adrian winced, D's instinct for weakness jumped into the opening. "We all saw you checking her out that night she came here. You were looking, weren't you? Yeah, you were, and not just at her face. Did you wonder how she'd feel underneath you? Did you get all nervous about breaking that no-sex promise to yourself?"

Adrian's mouth thinned into a slash, and D hoped the male's response was a nasty one. He wanted something hard to come back at him. Maybe they could even go at it for the remaining three minutes.

But there was only silence.

"Nothing to say to me?" D glanced at the clock. "Just as well. It's time to go—"

"I bleed for her. The same as you do."

D looked back at his twin, witnessing the pain on the male's face from a long distance, as if he were staring through a pair of binoculars. He had a passing thought that he should feel something, some kind of shame or sorrow for forcing Adrian to give up that intimate, sad revelation.

Without a word, Dimitri dematerialized.

He triangulated his reappearance to a wooded area about one hundred yards away from where the civilian male said he'd escaped form. As D took form, the fading light in the sky blinded him and made him feel like he'd volunteered for an acid facial. He ignored the burning and headed in a northeasterly direction, jogging over the snow covered ground.

And then there it was, in the middle of the woods, about a hundred feet from a stream: a single-story house-like structure with a black Ford F-150 and a nondescript silver Taurus parked off to one side. D sidled up to the structure, staying behind the trunks of pine trees, moving quietly in the snow as he worked the building's periphery. It had no windows and only one door. Through the thin walls he could hear movement, talking.

He took out one of his SIGs, flipped off the safety, and considered his options. Dematerializing inside was a dumb move, because he didn't know the interior layout. And his only other alternative, though satisfying, wasn't that strategic either: Kicking the door down and going in shooting was damn appealing, but as suicidal as he was, he wasn't going to risk Rose's life by lighting the place up.

Except then, miracle of miracles, a _lesser_ came out of the building, the door shutting with a smack. Moments later a second one followed, and then there was the _beep-beep_ of a security alarm activating.

D's first instinct was to shoot them both in the head, but he held his finger to the side of the trigger. If the slayers had reactivated the alarm, there was a good chance no one else was in-house, and his chances of getting Rose out had just improved. But what if that was SOP on exit regardless of whether the place was empty? Then all he'd do is announce his presence and set off a shit storm.

He watched the two _lessers_ as they got in the truck. One had brown hair, which usually meant the slayer was a new recruit, but this guy didn't act like FNG: He was sure in his boots and doing the talking. His pale haired buddy was the one sporting the bobble-head nod.

The engine started up and the truck backed around, packing the snow under its tired. Without headlights, the F-150 headed down a barely-there lane through the trees.

Letting those two bastards drive off into the sunset was an exercise in bondage, with D turning the large muscles of his body into iron ropes over his bones. It was either that or he'd be on the truck's hood, smashing his fist through the windshield, pulling the SOBs out by their hair so he could bite them.

As the sound of the truck faded, D listened hard to the silence that followed. When he heard nothing, he went back to wanting to blast through the door, but he thought about the alarm and checked his watch. Eddie would be on site it about a minute and a half.

It would kill him. But he would wait.

While he twitched in his boots, he became aware of a smell, something…He sniffed the air. There was propane around, somewhere close. Probably feeding the generator around the back. And kerosene from a heater. But there was something else, some kind of smoky, burning…he looked at his hands, wondering if he was on fire and hadn't noticed. No.

_What the hell?_

His bones went cold as he realized what it was. His boots were planted in the middle of a scorched patch of earth, one about the size of a body. Something had been incinerated right where he was standing—within the last twelve hours, by the scent of it.

_Oh…God._ Had they left her out for the sun?

D eased down on his haunches, putting his free hand on the withered ground. He imagined her lying there when the sun came out, imagined her feeling ten thousand times more pain than he had as he'd just materialized.

The blackened spot got blurry.

He scrubbed his face and then stared at his palm. There was wetness on it. Tears?

He searched his chest for what he was feeling, but all that came to him was information about his body. His torso swaying because his muscles were weak. He was light-headed and vaguely nauseous. But that was it. There were no emotions for him.

He rubbed his sternum and was about to do another sweep with his hands when a pair of boots came into his line of sight.

He looked up into Adrian's face. The thing was a mask, all frozen and pasty.

"Was it her?" He croaked, kneeling down.

D lurched backward, just barely managing to keep his gun out of the snow. He couldn't be anywhere near someone right now, especially Adrian.

In a messy scramble, he got to his feet. "Eddie here yet?"

"Right behind you, my brother," E whispered.

"There's…" He cleared his throat. Rubbed his face on his forearm. "There's a security alarm. I think the place is clear, because two slayers just left, but I'm not sure."

"I'm on the alarm."

D caught a number of scents all of a sudden and glanced behind him. The whole of the Brotherhood was there, even Abe, who as king was not supposed to be in the field. They were all armed. They had all come to get her back.

The group lined up flat against the house as E used a pick on the door lock. His Glock went in first. When there was no reaction, he slipped inside and closed himself in. a moment later there was one long beep. He opened the door.

"Good to go."

D rushed forward, practically mowing down the male.

His eyes penetrated the dim corners of the single room. The place was a mess, with shit scattered all over the floor. Clothes…knives and handcuffs and…shampoo bottles? And what the fuck was that? God, a disemboweled first-aid kit, its gauze and tape bleeding out of the ruined lid. The thing looked like it had been stomped on until it had opened.

Heart pounding in his chest, sweat blooming all over him, he looked for Rose and saw only inanimate objects: A wall of shelving that held nightmarish instruments. A cot. A fireproof metal closet the size of a car. An autopsy table with four sets of steel chains hanging off its corners…and blood smudged on its smooth surface.

Random thoughts fired through D's brain. She was dead. That burned oval proved it. except what if that had just been another captive? What if she'd been moved or something?

As his brothers hung back, like they knew better than to get in his way Dimitri went over to the fireproof closet, keeping his fun in hand. He wrenched the doors off, just grabbed onto the metal panels and bent them until the hinges broke. He tossed the heavy sections away, hearing them clatter and bang.

Guns. Ammunition. Plastic explosives.

The arsenal of their enemies.

He went into the bathroom. Nothing but a stall shower and a bucket with a toilet seat on it.

"She's not here, my brother," Adrian said.

In a fir of rage D launched himself at the autopsy table, picking it up with one hand and throwing it into a wall. In midflight, a length of chain came back at him, catching him in the shoulder, nailing him to the bone.

And then he heard it. A soft whimpering sound.

His head snapped around to the left.

In the corner, on the ground, there were three cylindrical metal lips protruding from the earth, and they were capped by mesh plates that were the dark brown color of the dirt floor. Which explained why he hadn't noticed them.

He went over and kicked off one of the covers. The whimpering got louder.

Suddenly light-headed, he fell to his knees. "Rose?"

Gibberish rose from the earth to answer him, and he dropped his gun. How was he going to…? Ropes—there were ropes coming out of what looked like a sewer pipe. He grabbed onto them and pulled gently.

What emerged was a dirty, bloody male, about ten years out of his transition. The civilian was naked and shivering, his lips blue, his eyes rolling around.

D dragged him free, and Christian wrapped his leather trench coat around the male.

"Get him out of here," someone said as he sliced the ropes.

"Can you dematerialize?" Another brother asked the male.

D paid no attention to the conversation. He went for the next hole, but there were no ropes leading down into it, and his nose detected no scent. The thing was empty.

He was stepping over to the third when the captive yelled, "No! th-that one's booby trapped!"

D froze. "How?"

Through chattering teeth, the civilian said, "I d-don't know. I just heard the _l-lesser_ warn one of his m-men about it."

Before d could ask, Christian started walking the room. "Got a gun over here. Business end pointed in that direction." There were sounds of metal clicks and shifting. "It's not armed. Anymore."

D looked above the hole. Mounted on the exposed rafters of the roof, about fifteen feet from the floor, there was a small device. "E, what have we got up there?"

"Laser eye. You break it, it probably triggers the—"

"Hold up," Christian said. "I got another gun to empty out here."

Eddie stroked his chin. "There must be a remote-control activator, although the guy probably took it with him. That's what I would do." He squinted up at the ceiling. "That particular model runs on lithium batteries. So it's not like we could kill the generator to turn it off. And they're tricky to disarm."

D glanced around for something he could use to push the plate off and thought of the bathroom. He went inside, whipped the shower curtain down and brought the pole it had hung from the back. "Everyone clear out."

Christian spoke sharply. "D, man, I don't know that I've found all the—"

"Take the civilian with you." When no one moved, he cursed. "We don't have time to fuck around, and if someone's getting shot it's going to be me. Jesus Christ, will you brothers _leave?"_

When the place was cleared out, D approached the hole. Standing with his back to one of the guns that had been removed, so that he would have been in its line of fire, he nudged the cover off with the pole. A gunshot rang out with a popping sound.

D caught the slug in his left calf. The searing impact brought him down on one knee, but he ignored it and dragged himself to the neck of the pipe. He took hold of the ropes that led down into the earth and began to pull.

The first thing he saw was her hair. Rose's long, beautiful brown hair was all around her, a veil over her face and shoulders.

He sagged and lost his vision, partly passing out, but even through the full-body wobble, he kept pulling. Abruptly the effort became easier…because there were hands helping him…other hands on the rope, other hands laying her gently on the floor.

Dressed in a sheer nightgown that was stained with her blood, she wasn't moving, but she was breathing. He carefully pushed her hair back from her face…

Dimitri's blood pressure took a nosedive. "Oh, sweet Jesus…oh, sweet Jesus…Oh, Sweet-"

"What did they do…" Whoever had spoken couldn't find the words to finish.

Throats cleared. A couple of coughs were smothered. Or maybe they were gags.

D gathered her in his arms and just…hugged her. He had to get her out, but he couldn't move for what had been done to her. Blinking, dizzy, screaming inside, he rocked her gently back and forth. Words fell from his mouth, lamentations for her in the Old Language.

Adrian sank down to his knees. "Dimitri? We have to take her away from here."

Focus came to D in a rush, and suddenly all he could think about was moving her to the mansion. He sliced the harness off her torso, then struggled to his feet with her in his arms. When he tried to walk, his left leg gave out and he stumbled. For a split second he couldn't think of why.

"Let me take her," Adrian said, putting out his hands. "You've been shot."

Dimitri shook his head and crushed by his twin, limping.

He took Rose out to the Taurus that was still parked in front of the building. Holding her against his chest, he broke the driver's side window with his fist, then craned his arm inside and unlocked everything while the alarm went crazy. Opening the rear door, he leaned down and put her on the seat. When he bent her legs slightly to make them fit, the nightgown rode up and he winced. She had bruises. A lot of them.

As the alarm ran out of steam, he said, "Someone give me a jacket."

The second he held his hand out behind him, leather hit his palm. He draped her carefully in what he realized was Adrian's coat, and then he shut her in and got behind the wheel.

Reaching under the dash, D hot-wired the sedan and sped from the scene like a bat out of hell.

**Ok guys let me know what you think of this chapter. The next one will be about Rose **

**Yay she's finally saved! **

**Now will Rose be able to break through his no emotions and find the true him? **

**What do you think? Will She?**

**Remember more reviews mean faster updates **


	6. Chapter 6

**Once again thank you to all who reviewed! I love hearing your thoughts as well as your ideas! Make sure you guys keep reviewing! **

**So what do you think of Dimitri's personality? Is it too harsh? What about Adrians no-sex? Kind of hard to see isn't it? What about Rose and not being a bad ass? I know that's hard to believe, but I guess in her own way she is kind of. **

**Come on guys I would love to have over 500 reviews when this story is finished **

**Once again I do not own Vampire Academy, or Black Dagger Brotherhood.**

**Also Dr. Olendski is going to be making an appearance in this chapter but she will be a he. I know weird but it goes along with the chapter better. Sorry!**

**Daren is kind of like their butler but he can go into day light and live for a long time. **

Chapter Six

Rose had some vague thought that she was in a car. Except how was that possible? She must be hallucinating.

No…it really sounded like a car, with that steady hum of an engine. And it felt like a car, a subtle vibration that at times condensed into a bump as something in the road went under the tires.

She tried to open her eyes, found she couldn't and tried again. As the effort exhausted her, she gave up. God, she was tired…like she had the flu. Ached all over, too, especially at her head and stomach. And she was nauseated. She tried to remember what had happened, how she'd gotten free, _if_ she was free. But all she had was an image of the _lesser_ who loved her coming through the door, covered in black blood. The rest was fog.

Patting her hand around, she found something covering her shoulders and pulled it closer. Leather. And it smelled…not at all like the cloying sweetness of a _lesser_. It was the scent of a male of her race. She took more breaths in through her nose. When she caught baby-powder scent of the slayers, she was confused until she pressed her nose into the seat. Yes, in the upholstery. This was a _lesser's_ car. But then why was a male vampire's sweat on what she was wearing? And there was something else, another smell…a dark musk with an evergreen spice.

Rose started to tremble. She remembered the scent well, remembered it from the first time she had gone to the Brotherhood's training compound, remember it form later, when she had been to their mansion.

_Dimitri._ Dimitri was in the car with her.

Her heart pounded. She struggled to open her eyes, but either her lids refused to obey or maybe they were already open and it was just to dark for her to see.

_Am I rescued? _ She asked. _ Did you come for me, Dimitri?_

Except no sound came out of her mouth, though she moved her lips. She formed the words again, forcing air through her voice box. A hoarse groan was released, nothing more.

Why weren't her eyes working?

She started to thrash around and then heard the sweetest sound than had ever reached her ears.

"I got you, Rose." Dimitri's voice. Low. Full of strength. "You're safe. You're out of there. And you're never going back."

He had come for her. He had come for her…

She started to sob. The car seemed to slow, but then their speed redoubled.

Her relief was so great, she slid into blackness.

Dimitri kicked open the door to his room, busting the lock mechanism clean off. The crack of sound was loud, and Rose stirred in his arms, moaning. He froze as her head turned form side to side in the crook of his arm.

This was good, he thought. This was very good.

"Come on, Rose, come back to me. Wake up." But she didn't regain consciousness.

He went over to his pallet and laid her down where he slept. When he glanced up, Abe and Adrian were in his doorway, the two huge males blocking out most of the light from the hall.

"She needs to go to Olendski's," Abe said. "She needs to be treated."

"Olendski can do what he has to here. She's not leaving this room."

D ignored the long silence that followed, totally caught up in watching Rose breathe. Her chest was going up and down in a regular pump, but is seemed so shallow.

Adrian's sigh was one he'd know anywhere. "Dimitri—"

"Forget it. He'll see her here. And no one is touching her without my permission or my presence." When he glared up at his brothers, Abe and Adrian seemed totally dumbfounded. "For chissakes, you want me to say it in the Old Language in case you two forgot English? She goes _nowhere._"

With a curse, Abe flipped open his cell phone and spoke fast and hard.

When he closed the thing, he said, "Daren is already in town, and he's going to pick the doctor up. They'll be here in twenty."

D nodded and looked at Rose's eyelids. He wished he could be the one to take care of what had been done to them. He wanted her to be relived now. _Oh, God…_How she must have suffered.

He became aware that Adrian had come over, and he didn't like it as the brother knelt down. D's instinct was to barricade Rose's body with his own, preventing his twin, Abe, the doctor, _any_ male from seeing her. He didn't understand the impulse, didn't know its origin, but it was so strong he nearly launched himself at Adrian's neck.

And then his twin reached out his hand as if to touch her angle. D's lips peeled off his fangs, a growl launching out of his mouth.

Adrian's head snapped up. "Why are you acting like this?"

_She's mine, _D thought.

Except the instant the conviction came to him, he pushed it aside. What the fuck _was_ he doing?

"She's hurt," he muttered. "Just don't mess with her, okay?"

Olendski arrived fifteen minutes later. The tall, thin doctor had a black leather suitcase in his hand and looked like he was ready to do his business. But as he came forward, D sprang up and intercepted the male into the wall. Olendski pale eyes popped wide behind his glasses, and his case clattered to the floor.

Abe cursed. "Jesus Christ—"

D ignored the hands trying to pull him off and pegged the doctor with a glare. "You treat her better than you would you own blood. She suffers one unnecessary flinch and I will take it out of your hide a hundred times over."

Olendski's slender body trembled, his mouth working silently.

Adrian gave a good pull and got nowhere. "Do, go easy—"

"Stay out of this," he snapped. "We clear, Doctor?"

"Yes…yes, sire." When D released him, Olendski coughed and pulled at his bow tie. Then frowned. "Sire…? You bleed. Your leg—"

"You don't worry about me. You worry about her. _Now._"

The male nodded, fumbled with his suitcase, and went over to the pallet. As he got down on his knees beside Rose, D willed lights on in the room.

Olendski's harsh inhalation was probably as close to a curse as the refined male could get. Under his breath he murmured in the Old Language, "To do this to a female…merciful Fade."

"Take the stitches out," D demanded, looming over the physician.

"First the exam. I have to see if there are more serious injuries."

Olendski opened up his case and pulled out a stethoscope, a blood-pressure cuff, and a penlight. He checked her heart rate and breathing, looked into her ears and nose, took her BP. When he opened her mouth she winced a little, but then he lifted her head and she began to struggle in earnest.

Just as Dimitri lunched at the doctor, Adrian's heavy arm clamped around D's chest and jerked him back. "He's not hurting her and you know it."

D fought the hold, hating the sensation of Adrian's body against him. But when his twin didn't let up, he knew it was for the best. He was on a hair trigger, and taking out the doctor would be a stupid move. Hell, he probably shouldn't be armed right now.

Adrian was obviously thinking along similar lines. He removed D's daggers from their chest holster and handed them to Abe. The guns were taken as well.

Olendski looked up and seemed greatly relieved that the weapons were gone. "I…ah, I'm going to give her some light pain medication. Her respiration and pulse rate are strong enough so she'll handle it fine, and it will make the rest of the examination and what follows easier for her to tolerate. Okay?"

It wasn't until D nodded that the doctor administered a shot. When the tension in Rose's body eased, the doctor took out a pair of scissors and went to the bottom of the bloodied nightgown she had on.

As he lifted up the hem, D felt a red rage. "Stop!"

The doctor braced himself for a blow to the head, but all D did was meet Adrian's stare and then Abe's. "Neither of you is to look at her naked. Close your eyes or turn around."

Both stared at him for a moment. Then Abe offered his back and Adrian lowered his lids, though he kept his hold on D's chest strong.

Dimitri stared hard at the doctor. "If you're going to remove her clothing, you cover her with something."

"what shall I use?"

"A towel from the bathroom."

"I'll get it," Abe said. After he handed one over, he resumed his post facing the door.

Olendski spread the towel over Rose's body and then cut the nightgown along one side. He glanced up before lifting anything. "I'm going to need to see all of her. And I'm going to have to touch her belly."

"What for?"

"I have to palpate her internal organs to determine whether any are swollen from trauma or infection."

"Make it quick."

Olendski pulled the towel aside—

D swayed against his twin's hard body. "Oh…_nalla_." His voice cracked. "Oh, sweet Jesus…_Nalla_."

Something was scratched into her skin on her stomach in what looked like a three-inch block letter in English. As he was illiterate, he didn't know what it said, but he had a horrible feeling…

"What does it read?" He hissed.

Olendski cleared his throat. "It is a name. Nathan. It says 'Nathan.'"

Abe growled. "_In her skin?_ That animal—"

D but his king off. "I will kill that _lesser_. So help me God, I will chew on his bones."

Olendski inspected the cuts, his hands light and careful. "You must see that no salt gets anywhere near these. Otherwise the scars will heal as it."

"No shit." As if he didn't have experience with how wounds became permanent.

Olendski covered her up and went to her feet, inspection them and then her calved. He pushed the night gown out of the way as he went to her knees. Then he moved one of her legs out to the side, parting her thighs.

D surged forward, dragging Adrian with him. "What the fuck are you doing!"

Olendski whipped back his hands, holding them up over his head. "I need to perform an internal exam. In the event that she has been…violated."

With a quick move, Abe stepped in from of D and clamped his arms around D's waist. Through the sunglasses, the king's stare burned. "Let him do it, D. It's better for her if he does."

Dimitri couldn't watch. He dropped his head down into Abe's neck, getting lost in the male's long black hair. The hard bodies of his brothers were sandwiching him, but he was too horrified to panic at the contact. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply, the scents of Adrian and Abe invading his nose.

He heard a rustling noise, as if the doctor were searching around in that case of his. Then there were two snapping sounds, as though the male were pulling on gloves. A shifting of metal against metal. Some whispering noises. Then…silence. No, not really. Little noises. Then a couple of clicks.

D reminded himself that all _lessers _were impotent. But he could just imagine how they made up for the deficiency.

He trembled for her until his teeth chattered.

"Okay, it's done," Olendski said.

Dimitri opened his eyes, seeing only Abe's thick hair. "Has she been…?"

"She's just fine. No signs of forcible intercourse or trauma of any kind." There was a snapping sound, as if the doctor were removing his gloves.

Dimitri sagged and his brothers accepted his weight. When he finally lifted his head, he saw that Olendksi had removed the bloody nightgown, put Rose's towel back in place, and was pulling on a fresh pair of gloves. The male leaned over his case, took out a pair of needle-nose scissors and some tweezers, then looked up.

"I'll do her eyes now, all right?" When D nodded, the doctor held up the instruments. "Be of care, Sire. You startle me and I could blind her with these. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. Just don't hurt—"

"She won't feel a thing. I promise you."

This D watched, and it took forever. He had some vague thought halfway through that he wasn't holding himself up anymore. Adrian and Abe were keeping him on his feet, his head lolling on the side of Abe's massive shoulder as he stared down.

"Last one," Olendski murmured. "Okay. The sutures are out."

All the males in the room took deep breaths, even the doctor, and then Olendski went back to his supplies and picked up a tube. He smoothed some ointment onto Rose's lids; then he packed up his suitcase.

As the doctor got to his feet, Dimitri broke away from his brothers and walked around a little bit. Abe and Adrian stretched their arms.

"Her injuries are painful, but not life-threatening at this point," Olendski said. "They will heal by tomorrow or the day after, provided they are left alone. She is malnourished and she needs to feed. If she's staying in this room, you need to turn up the heat and move her to the bed. Food and drink should be brought in for when she comes around. And there's one other thing. One theinternal exam, I found…" His eyes bounced between Abe and Adrian, then settled on Dimitri. "Something of a personal nature."

Dimitri went over to the doctor. "What?"

Olendski drew him into the corner and spoke softly.

D was stunned speechless when the male was finished. "You sure?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"I don't know. But fairly soon."

D looked down at Rose. _Oh, Christ…_

"Now, I am assuming you have aspirin or Motrin in the house?"

D had no clue; he never took pain meds. He glanced at Adrian.

"Yes, we do," the brother said.

"Let her take them. And I'll give you something stronger as backup in case they don't work well enough."

Olendski took out a small glass bottle that had a red rubber seal as a top and palmed two hypodermic syringes that were in sterile packs. He wrote on a little pad, then handed that paper and the supplies to D.

"If it's daytime and she's in a great deal of pain when she wakes up, you may give her a shot of this according to my directions. It's the same morphine I just gave her, but you must mind the dosage information. Call me if you have questions or you want me to walk you through the injection and give her the shot myself." Olendski glanced down at D's leg. "Would you like for me to examine your wound?"

"Can I bathe her?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Now?"

"Yes." Olendski frowned. "But, sire, your leg…"

D walked into his bathroom, cranked the Jucuzzi's faucets, and stuck his hand under the rush. He waited until it was warm enough; then he went back for her.

By this time, the doctor had gone, but Lissa, Christian's female, was in the bedroom's doorway, wanting to see Rose. Adrian and Abe talked to her briefly and shook their heads. She left, looking stricken.

As the door shut, D knelt down next to the pallet and started to pick Rose up.

"Hold it, D." Abe's voice was hard. "Her family should be caring for her."

D stopped and thought of whoever had fed her fish. God…this was probably not right. Keeping her here, away from those who had proper cause to attend her in her pain. But the idea of letting her go out into the world was unbearable. He'd only just found her…

"She'll go to them tomorrow," he said. "Tonight and today she stays here."

Abe shook his head. "It's not—"

"You think she's ready to travel like this?" D snapped. "Leave the female alone. Call her family and tell them she will be given over to them at nightfall tomorrow. Right now she needs a bath and some sleep."

Abe's lips tightened. There was a long silence. "Then she goes to another room, D. She's not staying in here with you."

Dimitri rose to his feet and walked over to the king, getting all up in his face. "You just try and move her."

For chissakes, D," Adrian barked. "Back off—"

Abe leaned forward until their noses almost touched. "Careful, D. You know damn well that threatening me won't get you cracked in the jaw."

Yeah, they'd been through it over the summer already. Legally D could be executed under the old rules of conduct if he pushed this much further. The king's life was valued over all others'.

Not that D gave a shit at the moment.

"You think I care about a death sentence?" _Please."_ He narrowed his eyes. "But I'll tell you this. Whether you decide to go majesty all over my ass or not, it'll take you at least a day to condemn me with the Scribe Virgin. So Rose's still sleeping here tonight."

He walked back to her and picked her up as carefully as he could while making sure the towel stayed where it needed to be. Without looking at Abe or his twin, he swept her into the bathroom and kicked the door shut behind him.

The tub was already halfway filled, so he kept a hold on her as he leaned down and checked the temperature. Perfect. He lowered her into the water and then stretched her arms over the sides so she was braced up.

The towel quickly dampened and fused with her body. He saw clearly the gently swells of her breasts, the small rib cage, the flat expanse of her stomach. As the water rose, the hem of the towel floated loose and flirted with the tops of her thighs.

D's heart kicked in his chest and he felt like lecher, staring at her when she was hurt and out of it. Hoping to shield her from his eyes and wanting to give her the modesty she deserved, he went to the cabinet to find some bubble bath. There was nothing except bath salts, and he sure as hell wasn't using them.

He was about to turn back to her when he was struck by how big the mirror was. He didn't want her to see what she looked like, because the less she knew about what had been done, the better, he covered the glass with two large towels, tucking the thick terry cloth behind the frame.

When he returned to her, she'd slid down into the water, but at least the top of the towel was still sticking to her shoulders and basically staying in place. He took hold of her under one of her arms and hitched her up, then grabbed a washcloth. The instant he started washing the side of her neck, she thrashed around, the water splashing up onto him. Low, panicky noises came out of her mouth, and they didn't stop even after he'd put the little towel aside.

_Talk to her, you idiot_.

"Rose…Rose, it's all right. You're okay."

She fell still and frowned. Then her eyes opened slightly and she started to blink a lot. When she tried to wipe at her lids, he took het hands away from her face.

"No. That's medicine. Leave it there."

She froze. Cleared her throat until she could speak. "Where… where am I?"

Her voice, groggy and hoarse as it was, sounded beautiful to him.

"You're with…" _Me_. "You're with the Brotherhood. You're safe."

As her glassy, unfocused eyes moved around, he leaned up to a switch on the wall and dimmed the lights. Even though she was delirious and no doubt mostly blind form the ointment, he didn't want her to see him. The last thing she needed to worry about was what would happen if her scars didn't heal smoothly.

When she dropped her arms into the water and braced her feet against the tub's base, he cut the faucet off and sat back on his heels. He wasn't good at touching people, so it wasn't a big surprise that she couldn't stand his hands on her. But damned, he had no idea what to do to relieve her.

She looked miserable—way past crying and into numb agony.

"You're safe…" He murmured, though he doubted she believed it. he wouldn't have if he'd been her.

"Is Dimitri here?"

He frowned, not knowing what to make of that. "Yeah, I'm right here."

"You are?"

"Right here. Right beside you." He reached out awkwardly and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back.

And then she seemed to slide into a delirium. She mumbled, making little sounds that might have been words, and jerked around. D grabbed another towel, rolled it up, and put it under her head so she wouldn't bump it against the hard edge of the Jacuzzi.

He racked his brain for what he could do to help her, and because it was the only thing he could think of, he hummed a little. When that seemed to calm her, he began to sing softly, choosing an Old Language hymn to the Scribe Virgin, one about blue skies and white owls and green field of grass.

Gradually Rose went sax and took a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she eased back against the towel pillow he'd made for her.

As his singing was the only comfort he could give her, he sang.

**Ok so I think ten pages and almost four thousands words is good. What about you? **

**Let me know what you think about this chapter.**

**I want to take a poll…**

**Do you think Rose will take to Adrian or Dimitri?**

**What if Dimitri wants her to be with someone he thinks is more worthy?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright guys here is the next chapter. I would like to thank Winter McCarth, The Red Rose, Amy Thillian, and everyone else who has reviewed. **

**No Rose is not going to have her 'period'. But awesome guess, if you go on my profile and read the list of terms, that might give you an idea **

**Keep Guessing!**

Chapter Seven

Adrian stared down at the pallet where Rose had just lain, thinking that the torn nightgown she'd had on made him ill. Then his eyes shifted to the skull on the floor to the left. The female skull.

"I can't allow this," Abe said as the sound of running water got cut off in the bathroom.

"D's not going to hurt her," Adrian muttered. "Look at the way he treats her. Christ, he's acting like a bonded male."

"What if his mood changes? You want Rose on that list of females he's killed?"

"He'll kit the ceiling if we take her away."

"Tough shit—"

The two of them froze. Then they both slowly looked toward the bathroom door. The sound coming from the other side was soft, rhythmic. As if someone were…

"What the hell?" Abe murmured.

Adrian couldn't believe it either. "He's singing to her."

Even muted, the purity and beauty of Dimitri's voice were striking. His tenor had always been like that. On the rare occasions he sang, the sounds that came out of his mouth were stunners, capable of making time grind to a halt and then slide into infinity.

"Damn…" Abe pushed his sunglasses up on to his forehead and rubbed his eyes. "Watch him, Adrian. Watch him well."

"Don't I always? Look, I have to go to Olendski's myself tonight. I'll have Christian keep an eye on things until I get back."

"You do that. We're not going to lose that female on our watch, we clear? Jesus Christ…that twin of your would drive anyone right off a cliff, you know that?" Abe stalked out of the room.

Adrian looked back down to the pallet and imagines Rose lying there next to Dimitri. this was all wrong. D didn't know a fricking thing about warmth. And that poor female had spent the last six weeks in the cold ground.

_It should be me in there with her. Washing her. Easing her. Caring for her._

_Mine_, he thought, glaring at the door the singing was coming out of.

Adrian started for the bathroom, suddenly pissed off beyond belief. The territorial anger lit his chest up like a bonfire, teeing off a blaze of power that roared in his body. He clamped his hand on the doorknob—and heard that beautiful tenor changing tune.

Adrian stood there, shaking. As his anger slid into a yearning that frightened him, he put his hand on his forehead on the jamb. _Oh, God…no._

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to find another explanation for his behavior. There wasn't one. And he and Dimitri were twins, after.

So it would make sense that they would want the same female. That they would end up…bonding with the same female.

He cursed.

Hold shit, this was trouble—of the bury-your-dead variety. Two bonded males tied to the same female were a lethal combination to begin with. Make that two warriors and you had the potential for a serious injury. Vampires were animals, after all. They walked and talked and were capable of high reasoning, but fundamentally they were animals. So there were some instincts that even the smartest brain could override.

Good thing he wasn't quite there yet. He was attracted to Rose and he wanted her, but he hadn't descended into the deep possessiveness that was the calling card of a bonded male. And he hadn't caught the bonding scent coming off of D, so maybe there was hope.

They'd both have to get away from Rose, though. Warriors, probably because of their aggressive natures, bonded hard and quick. So hopefully she would leave soon and go back to her family, where she belonged.

Dimitri knew it was time to get Rose out of the tub, because she'd been in it for almost an hour and her skin was pruning up. Except then he glanced through the water at the towel he kept pulling into place over her body.

Shit…getting her out with that thing on was going to get messy.

With a wince, he reached over and pulled it off.

Looking away quickly, he slung the wet load to the floor and grabbed a dry one, which he put right next to the tub. Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and pushed his arms into the water, going for her body. His eyes ended up right on the level of her breasts.

_Oh, God…_ They were perfect. Creamy white with little pink tips. And the water flirted with her nipples, teasing them with rippling kisses that made them glisten.

He squeezed his lids shut, pulled his arms out of the tub, and sat back on his heels. When he was ready to try again, he focused on the wall ahead and arched over… only to feel a quick shot of pain at his hips. He looked down, confused.

There was a swollen bulge in his pants. The _it_ was so hard, a tent had popped out of the front of his warm-ups. Clearly the thing had gotten squeezed over, and that was what the stinger was about.

Cursing, he pushed the _it _around with the heel of his hand, hating the feel of the heavy weight, the way the hard length got tangled in his sweats, the fact that he had to deal with it at all. Except no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get the thing arranged right, at leaste not without putting his hand inside and working it around, which he was damn well not going to do. Eventually he gave up and left the erection caught at an angel, twisted and hurting.

Served the bastard right.

Dimitri took a deep breath, slid his arms into the water, and wrapped them under Rose's body. He lifted her out, shocked anew at how light she was; then he propped her against the marble wall using the outside of his hip and a hand on her collarbone. He picked up the towel he'd left on the Jacuzzi's edge, but before he put it around her, his eyes shifted to the letters on the skin of her stomach.

Something odd lurched in his chest, a heavy weight…No, it was a descending sensation, as if he were falling down, though he was on a level. He was astonished. It had been so long since anything had broken through the anger or the numbness. He had a feeling he was…sad?

_Whatever_. She had goose bumps, was covered in them. So now was not the time to get all into himself.

He wrapped her up and carried her to the bed. Shoving the comforter aside, he laid her out flat, taking the damp towel off of her. As he covered her with the sheets and blankets, he caught sight of her belly again.

That weird tilting sensation came back, like his heart had taken a gondola ride into his gut. Or maybe his thighs.

He tucked her in and then went to the thermostat. Facing the dial, looking at numbers and writing he didn't understand, he had no idea what to turn it to. He moved the little pointer from all the way to the left to somewhere right of center, but he wasn't sure exactly what he'd done.

He glanced over to the bureau. The two syringes and the glass vial of morphine were sitting where Olendski had left them. D went over, picked up a paused before leaving the room. Rose was so still in that bed, so small against all the pillows.

He imagined her in that pipe in the ground. Frightened. In pain. Cold. Then he imagined the _lesser_ doing what he'd done to her, holding her down while she struggled and screamed.

This time D knew what he felt.

Vengeance. Icy cold vengeance. So much of it the shit ran straight into infinity.

Dimitri went to Adrian's room, walking fast, and wanting to run. He needed to get back before Rose woke up alone.

D walked right into Adrian's room without knocking. "How in the hell do I set the thermostat?"

A normal male might have been embarrassed to ask such questions but not D. You didn't say or cross him for fear of getting your head bitten off. Literally.

"The dial needs to be here. Seventy degrees should be good." Adrian said after a moment of stunned silence, and walked over to his own thermostat and showed D.

"I didn't turn it up enough."

"And you've got to make sure this switch on the bottom of the unit is all the way over to the right. Otherwise, no matter what the dial is on, the heat won't kick in."

"Yeah…okay. And can you tell me what this says?"

Adrian looked down at a square piece of paper. "It's the dosage information for the shot."

"No shit. So what do I do?"

"Is she uncomfortable?"

"Not right now, but I want you to fill this up for me and tell me what to do. I need one dose ready to go in case Olendski can't get here fast enough."

Adrian took the vial and unwrapped the needle. "Okay."

"Do it right." When Adrian was finished Dimitri asked, "How long will you be gone?"

"Maybe and hour."

"Do me a favor first, then. Lose that sedan I brought her back in."

"I already did."

Dimitri nodded and left.

Dimitri was quiet as he stole back into his room. After he fixed the thermostat and put the medicine on the bureau, he went over to the bed and leaned against the wall, staying in the shadows. He became suspended in the time as he loomed over Rose and measured the slight rise and fall of the covers that marked her breathing. He could feel the minutes dripping into hours, and yet he could not move even as his legs grew numb.

In the candlelight he watched her skin heal right in front of his eyes. It was miraculous, the bruises fading from her face, the swelling around her eyes draining away, the cuts disappearing. Thanks to the deep sleep she was in, her body was throwing off the damage, and as her beauty was revealed once again, he was so damned grateful. In the lofty circles she ran in, a female with imperfections of any kind would be shunned. Aristocrats were like that.

He pictured his twin's unmarred, handsome face and knew Adrian should be the one taking care of her. Adrian was perfect savior material, and it was obvious he was into her. Plus she would like to wake up to a male like that. Any female would.

So why the hell didn't he just pick her up and put her in Adrian's bed? Right now.

But he couldn't move. And as he stared down at her while she lay on pillows he'd never used between sheets he'd never turned back for himself, he remember the past…

_Months had gone by since the slave first awoke in captivity. And in this time there was not anything that had not been done to him, in him, or on him, and there was a predictable rhythm to the abuse._

_ The mistress was fascinated by his privates and felt the need to display them to other males she favored. She would bring these strangers into the cell, get out the salve, and show him off like a prized horse. He knew she did it to make the others insecure, for he could see the delight in her eyes as the males shook their heads in awe._

_ When the inevitable violations started up, the slave did his best to release himself form his skin and bones. It was so much more bearable when he could rise up into the air, rise higher and higher until he bounced along the ceiling, a cloud of himself. If he was lucky, he could transform entirely and just float along, watching them from above, playing witness to someone else's humiliation and pain and degradation. But it didn't always work. Sometimes he couldn't free himself, and was forced to endure._

_ The mistress always had to use the salve on him, and of late he's notices something strange: Even when he was trapped in his body and everything being done to him was vivid, even as the sounds and the smells burrowed like rats into his brain, there was a curious displacement below his waist. Whatever he felt down there registered as an echo, as something removed from the rest of him. It was odd, but he was grateful. Any kind of numbing was good. _

D backed away from the bed. He didn't want to think of the Mistress in Rose's presence…as if all that evil could escape his mind and endanger her as she slept and healed.

He went over to his pallet and realized he was curiously tired. Exhausted, actually.

As he stretched out on the floor, his leg throbbed like a bitch.

God, he'd forgotten he'd been shot. He tripped out of his boots and pants and willed a candle to light beside him. Cocking his leg around, he inspected the wound on his calf. There was both an entrance and an exit hole, so he knew the bullet had passed through. He'd live.

He extinguished the candle with his breath, draped his pants over his hips, and lay back. Opening himself up to the pain his body, he became a basin for the agony, catching all the nuances of his aches and stings.

He heard an odd noise, like a small cry. The sound was repeated, and then Rose began to struggle on the bed, the sheets rustling as if she were flailing around.

He shot up from the floor and went around to her, just as her head tilted toward him and her eyes opened.

She blinked, looked up at his face…and screamed.

Adrian's spine turned to ice. _Rose_.

He bolted up to the second floor pounded down the hall of statues. When he three open Dimitri's door, light spilled into the room and the scene was instantly carved into memory: Rose on the bed, cowering against the headboard, sheets clenched to her throat. D crouched in front of her, hands up, naked from the waist down.

Adrian lost it and launched himself at Dimitri, grabbing his twin by the throat and throwing him against the wall.

"What is wrong with you!" He yelled as he crashed D into the plaster. "_You fucking animal!"_

D didn't fight back as he was slammed again. And all he said was, "Take her away. Take her somewhere else."

Christian and Abe burst into the room. Both started talking, but Adrian couldn't hear anything for the roar between his ears. He'd never hated D before. Had cuts his twin slack for all he'd endured. But going after Rose…

"You sick bastard," Adrian hissed. He nailed that hard body to the wall once more. "God, you _disgust _me."

D merely stared back, his black eyes like asphalt, opaque and flat.

Suddenly Christian's massive arms clamped around them, gathering them up into a bone-crushing bear hug. In a whisper, the brother said, "Rose doesn't need this right now, boys."

Adrian dropped his hold and pushed himself free. Yanking his coat back into place, he snapped, "Get him out of here until we move her."

God, he was shaking so badly he was almost hyperventilation. And the anger wouldn't quit, even as D voluntarily, with Adrian right on his heels,

Adrian cleared his throat and glanced at Abe. "My lord, will you give me leave to attend to her in private?"

"Yeah, I will." Abe's voice was a nasty growl as he headed for the door. "And we'll make sure z doesn't come back for a while."

Adrian looked over at Rose. She was trembling as she blinked and wiped at her eyes. When he approached her, she shrank back against the pillows.

"Rose, It's Adrian."

Her body relaxed a little. "Adrian?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"I can't see." Her voice quavered like hell. "I can't…"

"I know, it's just the medicine. Let me get something to clean it off."

He went into the bathroom and came back with a damp cloth, figuring she needed to get a look at her surrounding more than she had to have the ointment.

She flinched as he took her shin in his palm.

"Easy, Rose…" When he put the cloth up to her eyes, she struggled, then clawed at him. "No, no…put your hands down. I'll get it off."

"Adrian?" She said hoarsely. "Is it really you?"

"Yes, it's me." He sat down on the edge of the bed. "You're at the Brotherhood's compound. You were brought here about seven hours ago. Your family's been notified that you're safe, and as soon as you want to, you can call them."

When she put her hand on his arm, he froze. With a tentative touch, she felt her way up to his shoulder to his neck, then touched his face and finally his hair. She smiled a little when she felt the thickness and then she breathed deep and put her other hand on his leg.

"It truly is you. I remember the smell of your shampoo."

The closeness and the contact sizzled through Adrian's clothes and skin, going straight into his blood. He felt like a total bastard to fell anything sexual, but he couldn't stop his body. Especially as she patted her way down his neck to his pectorals.

His lips opened, his breath getting short. He wanted to drag her against his chest and hold her tight. Not for sex, though it was true his body wanted that from her. No, right now he just needed to fell her warmth and reassure himself that she was alive.

"Let me take care of your eyes," He said. _Jesus_, his voice was deep.

When she nodded, he carefully wiped at her lids. "How's that?"

She blinked. Smiled a little. Put her hand on face.

"I can see you better now." But then she frowned. "How did I get out of there? I can't remember anything except…I let the other civilian go and Nathan came back. And then there was a car right. Or was that a dream? I dreamt that Dimitri saved me. Did he?"

Adrian was not up to talking about his twin, even tangentially. He rose to his feet and put the washcloth on the nightstand. "Come on, let's get you to your room."

"Where am I now?" She looked around, then her mouth parted. "This is Dimitri's room."

How the hell did she know that? "Let's go."

"Where is he? Where's Dimitri?" Urgency threaded her voice. "I need to see him. I need—"

"I'm going to take you to your room—"

"No! I want to stay—"

She was so agitated now he decided to stop trying to talk to her. He pulled back the sheets so he could help her up—

_Shit, she was naked._ He yanked the covers back into place.

"Ah, sorry…" He pushed a hand into his hair. _Oh, God…_ The graceful lines of her body were something he was never going to forget. "Let me…um, let me get you something to wear."

He went to D's closet and was stunned by how empty it was. There wasn't even a robe to cover her with, and he'd be damned if he'd put her in one of his twin's fighting shirts. He took off his leather pea coat and walked over to her again.

"I'll turn my back while you put this on. We'll find you a robe—"

"Don't take me away from him." Her voice cracked from pleading. "Please. That must have been him standing over the bed. I didn't know it, I couldn't see. But it must have been him."

It sure as hell was. And the bastard had been naked as sin and ready to jump her. Considering all she'd been through, the near-miss was a total cringer. _Man…_ Years ago Adrian and caught D having sex in a back alley with a whore. It hadn't been pretty, and the idea of Rose's being subjected to that made him ill.

"Put on the coat." Adrian turned away. "You are not staying here." When h finally heard the bedding move, and the creak of leather, he took a deep breath. "Are you decent?"

"Yes, but I don't want to go."

He looked over his shoulder. She was dwarfed by the coat he wore all the time, her long mahogany hair falling around her shoulder, the ends curled as if they'd gotten wet and had dried without being brushed. He imagined her in a tub with clean water rushing over her pale skin.

And then he saw Dimitri looming over her, watching her with those soulless black eyes, wanting to fuck her, probably only because she was scared. Yeah, her fear would be the turn=on for him. It was well-know that terror in a female cranked him up more than anything lovely or warm or worthy.

_Get her our of here,_ Adrian thought. _Right now_.

His voice became unsteady. "Can you walk?"

"I'm light-headed."

"I'll carry you." He approached her, on some level unable to believe he was going to put his arms around her body. But then it was happening…He slid his hand around her waist and reached down, taking her behind her knees. Her weight barely registered, his muscles accepting her easily.

As he started for the door she eased into him, laying her head on his shoulder, taking some of his shirt into hand.

_Oh…Sweet Virgin. _This felt so right.

Adrian carried her down the hall to the other side of the house, to the room next to his.

**Ok guys I know you're probably a little upset that Adrian had to come and ruin everything but there has to be something going on besides just Dimitri and Rose LOL **

**So let me know what you thought of this chapter, and make sure you review! If I can get ten reviews I'll post the other chapter tonight yet it's already done **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

As Rose hung up the phone, she had a passing thought that what was going on inside her chest was so explosive, she was going to shatter at any moment. There was just no way her brittle bones and her fragile skin could hold in the kind of emotion she was feeling.

In desperation she looked around the room, seeing the vague, blurry outlines of oil paintings and antique furniture and lamps made from Oriental cases and…Adrian staring at her from a chaise longue.

She reminded herself that, like her mother, she was a lady. So she should at least pretend to have some self-control. She cleared her throat. "Thank you for staying while I made that call to my family."

"Of Course."

"My mother was…greatly relieved to hear my voice."

"I can imagine."

Well, at least her mother had spoken words of relief. Her affect had been as smooth and calm as always. God…the female was ever the still-watered pond, unshaken by earthly events no matter how grim. And all because of her devotion to the Scribe Virgin. To _mahmen,_ everything happened for a reason…yet nothing ever seemed particularly important.

"My mother…is greatly relieved. She…" Rose stopped. She'd already said those words, hadn't she? "_Mahmen _was…she really was…she was relieved."

But it would have helped is she had at least chocked up. Or shown anything but the beatific acceptance of the spiritually enlightened. For chrissakes, the female had buried her daughter and then been witness to a resurrection. You'd think that would call for some kind of emotional reaction. Instead it was as if they'd just spoken yesterday, and nothing of the past six weeks had occurred.

Rose glanced back down at the phone. Wrapped her arms around her stomach.

With no warning whatsoever, she cracked wide-open. The sobs came out of her like sneezed: fast, hard, shocking in their ferocity.

The bed dipped, and strong arms came around her. She fought the pull, thinking that a warrior wouldn't want to deal with such a sloppy weakness.

"Forgive me…"

"It's okay, Rose. Lean on me."

_Oh, hell…_ She collapsed against Adrian, wrapping her arms around his right waist.

When she finally calmed down she felt lighter, but not in a good way. The angry emotions had filled her out, given her contours and weight. Now, because her skin was nothing more than a sieve, she was leaching out, becoming air…becoming nothing.

She didn't want to disappear.

She inhaled and broke free of Adrian's embrace. Blinking rapidly, she tried to focus her eyes, but the blurriness from the ointment persisted. God, what had that _lesser_ done to her? She had a feeling it had been bad…

She reached up to her eyelids. "What did he do to me?"

Adrian just shook his head.

"Was it that ugly?"

"It's over. You're safe. That's all that matters."

_None of it feels over to me, _she thought.

But then Adrian smiled, his brown star impossibly tender, a balm that soothed her. "Would it be easier if you were at home? Because if you want, we can find a way to get you there, even though the dawn's coming very soon."

Rose pictured her mother and couldn't imagine being in the same house with that female. Not right now. And even more to the point there was Denis. If her brother saw her with any kind of injury he'd go crazy, and the last thing she needed was him on the warpath against the _lessers._ She wanted the violence to stop. As far as she was concerned, Nathan could go to hell right this minute; she just didn't want anyone she loved risking their lives to send him there.

"No, I don't want to go home. Not until I'm completely healed. And I'm so very tired…" Her voice drifted of as she glanced at the pillows.

After a moment Adrian got up. "I'm right next door if you need me."

"Would you like your coat back?"

"Oh, yeah…let me see if there's a rob in here." He disappeared into a closet and came back with black satin draped over his forearm. "Daren stocks these guest rooms for males, so this is probably going to be too big."

She took the robe and he turned away. When she shrugged out of his heavy leather coat tha air chilled her, so she quickly wrapped the satin around herself.

"Okay," she said, grateful for his discretion.

As he pivoted back to her, she put the leather into his hands.

"I'm always saying thank-you to you, aren't I?" She murmured.

He looked at her for a long time. Then in slow motion, he lifted his coat to his face and breathed in deeply.

"You're…" His voice trailed off. Then he dropped the leather to his side and an odd expression hit his face.

Actually, no, that wasn't an expression. It was a mask. He'd gone into hiding.

"Adrian?"

"I'm glad you're with us. Try to get some sleep. And eat some of what I brought you, if you can.

The door shut behind him without a sound.

Lying in bed, Rose listened to the quiet sounds around her: male voices down the hall, low-pitched, rhythmic…the wind outside pushing against the mansion, capricious, uneven…the creak of a floorboard, quick, high-pitched.

She forced herself to close her eyes.

A minute or so later she was up and pacing around, the Oriental on the floor soft under her bare feet. None of her elegant surroundings made sense, and she felt like she had to awkwardly transcribe what she was seeing. The normalcy, the safety she was steeping in seemed like another language, one she had forgotten how to speak or read. Or was this a dream?

In the corner of the room the grandfather clock chimed five a.m. How long had she been free, exactly? How long since the Brothers had come for her and taken her from the earth back into air? Eight hours now? Maybe, except it felt like minutes. Or maybe it felt like years?

The fuzzy quality of time was like her blurry vision, insulting her, scaring her.

She pulled the silk robe around her more tightly. This was all wrong. She should be rejoicing. After God only knew how many weeks in that pipe in the ground with that _lesser_ standing over her, she should be weeping with sweet relief. Instead everything around her felt fake and insubstantial, as if she were in a life-size dollhouse filled with papier-mâché fakes.

She paused in front of a window and realized that only one thing felt real. And she wished she were with him.

Dimitri must have been the one who had come to the side of the bed as she'd first woken up. She'd been dreaming of being back in the hole, back with the _lesser_. When she'd opened her eyes, all she'd seen was a massive black shape standing over her, and for a moment she hadn't been able to separate reality from nightmare.

She was still having trouble with that.

God, she wanted to go to Dimitri down, wanted to return to his room. But in the middle of all the chaos after she'd screamed, he hadn't prevented her from leaving him, had he? Maybe he preferred her elsewhere.

Rose ordered her feet to start moving again and she made herself a little track: around the foot of the gigantic bed, over to the chaise, quick loop by the windows, then a big scenic swing past the highboy and the door to the hall and the old-fashioned writing desk. The home stretch took her by the fireplace and the bookshelves.

More pacing. More pacing. More pacing.

Eventually she went into the bathroom. she didn't stop in front of the mirror; didn't want to know what her face looked like. What she was after was some hot water. She wanted to take a hundred showers, a thousand baths. She wanted to strip off the first layer of her skin and shave off the hair that _lesser_ had loved so much and clip he nails and clean her ears and scrub the soles of her feet.

She fired up the showerhead. When the spray was warm, she dropped the robe and stepped under the water. The second the rush hit her back, she covered herself out of instinct, one arm over her breasts, one hand shielding the apex of her thighs…until she realized she didn't have to hide. She was alone. She had privacy here.

She straightened and forced her hands to her sides, feeling like it had been forever since she'd been allowed to wash in private. The _lesser_ had always been there, staring, or worse, helping.

Thank God, he'd never tried to have sex with her. Rape had been one of her greatest fears in the beginning. She'd been terrified, sure he was going to force her, but then she'd discovered he was impotent. No matter how hard he stared at her, his body had always remained flaccid.

With a shudder, she reached to the side for the bar of soap, lathered her hands, and ran them over her arms. She sudsed up her neck and then across her shoulders and worked her way down…

Rose frowned and bent forward. There was something on her belly…faded scratches. Scratches that…_Oh, God_. That was a N, wasn't it? And the next…that was an A. Then a T, an H, and an A, and another N.

Rose dropped the bar of soap and covered her stomach with her hands, falling back against the tile. His name was on her body. In her skin. Like a gruesome parody of her species' highest mating ritual. She truly was his wife…

Stumbling from the shower, slipping on the marble floor, she grabbed a towel and wrapped herself up. Grabbed another and did the same. She would have gone for three, four…five, if she'd found more.

Shaky, nauseous, she went up to the mirror that was fogged over. Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her elbow across the condensation. And looked at herself.

As dawn came and shutters went down over the windows, Rose drew on the black robe and bolted out of the bedroom she'd been given. With quick eyes, she checked up and down the hallway. No witnesses. _Good_. Closing the door quietly, she glided over the Persian runner, making no sound at all. When she got to the head of the grand staircase she paused, trying to remember which way to go.

The corridor with the statues, she thought, remember another trip down that long stretch.

She walked fast and then ran, clutching the lapels of the robe and holding the slit on the bottom closed over her thighs. She passes statues and doors, until she got to the end and stopped in front of the last pair. She didn't bother to collect herself, because she was uncollectible. Loose, ungrounded, in danger of disintegration—there was no collecting anything. She knocked loudly.

Through the door came, "Fuck off. I've crashed."

She turned the knob and pushed. Light from the hall barged in, slicing a pie wedge out of the darkness. As the glow hit Dimitri, he lay upon a pallet of blankets in the corner. He was naked, his muscles flexing into ridges under his skin, his nipple rings flashing silver. His face, with that scar, was a billboard for the rankly pissed-off male.

"I said, _fuck o—_Rose?" He covered himself with his hands. "Jesus Christ. What are you doing?"

_Good question, _she thought as her courage dimmed. "Can…can I stay here with you?"

He frowned. "What are you—No, you can't."

He grabbed something off the floor and held it in front of his hips as he stood up. With no apologies for her stare, she drank in the sight of him: the tattooed slave bands around his wrists and neck, the gauge in his left earlobe, his obsidian eyes, his chin length hair. His body was as starkly lean as she remembered, all striated muscles and hard-cut veins and evident bones. Raw power emanated from him like a scent.

"Rose, get out of here, okay? This is not the place for you."

She ignored the command in his eyes and his tone, because although her bravery was gone, desperation gave her the strength she needed.

Now her voice no longer faltered. "When I was so out of it in the car, you were behind the wheel, weren't you?" He didn't respond, but she didn't need him to. "Yes, you were. That was you, you spoke to me. You were the one who came for me, weren't you?"

He flushed. "The Brotherhood came for you."

"But you drove me away. And you brought me here first. To your room." She looked at the luxurious bed. The covers were thrown back, the pillow dented from where her head had lain. "Let me stay."

"Look, you need to be sage—"

"I am safe with you. You saved me. You won't let that _lesser_ get me again."

"No one can touch you here. This place is wired like the damned Pentagon."

"Please—"

"No," He snapped. "Now get the hell out of here."

She started to shake. "I can't be alone. Please let me stay with you. I need to…" She needed him specifically, but didn't think he'd respond well to that. "I need to be with someone."

"Then Adrian's more what you're looking for."

"No, he's not." She wanted the male in front of her. For all his brutality, she trusted him instinctually.

Dimitri ran a hand through his hair. A number of times. Then his chest expanded.

"Don't make me go," She whispered.

When he cursed, she exhaled in relief, figuring that was as close to a yes as she was going to get.

"I have to put some pants on," he muttered.

Rose stepped inside and closed the door, lowering her eyes for only a moment. When she looked up again, he'd turned away and was pulling a pair of black nylon sweats up his thighs.

His back, with its streaks of scars, flexed as he bent over. Seeing the cruel pattern, she was struck with the need to know exactly what he'd been through. All of it. Each and every lash. She'd heard the rumors about him; she wanted his truth.

He'd survived what had been done to him. Maybe so could she.

He turned around. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes, Adrian brought me food."

A flicker of expression passed over his face, but it was gone so fast she couldn't read it.

"Are you in pain?"

"Not particularly."

He walked over to the bed and plumped up the pillows. Then he stood to one side, looking down at the floor.

"Get in."

As she came forward she wanted to throw her arms around him, and he stiffened, as though he'd read her mind. God, she knew he didn't like to be touched. But she wanted to get close anyway.

_Please look at me,_ she thought.

She was just about to ask him to when she noticed he had something around his throat.

"My necklace," she breathed. "You're wearing my necklace."

She reached out to it, but he flinched away. With a quick movement he took off the fragile gold chain with its little diamonds and dropped the thing in her hand.

"Here. Take it back."

She looked down. Diamonds by the Yard. By Tiffany. She'd worn it for years…her staple piece of jewelry. The thing had been so much a part of her, she'd always felt naked without it on. Now the fragile links seemed totally foreign to her.

It was warm, she thought, fingering a diamond. Warm from his skin.

"I want you to keep it," she blurted.

"No."

"But—"

"Enough with the talk. Get in or get out of here."

She put the necklace into the pocket of the robe and glanced at him. His eyes were locked on the floor, and as he breathed his nipple rings caught the light.

_Look at me,_ she thought.

Except he didn't so she got into bed. When he leaned down she scooted over to make room for him, but all he did was pull the covers over her and then go back to the corner, to the pallet on the floor.

Rose stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. Then she grabbed a pillow, slid out of the bed, and went over to him.

"What are you doing?" His voice was high. Alarmed.

She dropped her pillow and lay down, easing onto the floor beside his big body. His scent was so much stronger now, smelling of evergreen and distilled male power. Seeking the heat of him, she inched closer until her forehead hit the back of his arm. He was so hard, like stone wall, but she was able to feel the weight of her own bones, the hard floor underneath her, the currents in the room as the heat came on. Through his presence, she connected to the world around her again.

_More. Closer_.

She pushed herself forward until she was flush against the side of him, from breast to heel.

He shifted away with a jerk, moving back until he hit the wall.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, pushing herself up to him again. "I need this from you. My body needs"—you—"something warm."

Abruptly he leaped to his feet.

_Oh, no. _He was going to kick her out—

"Come on," he said gruffly. "We're going to the bed. I can't stand the idea of you on the floor."

When Adrian woke up, it was three fifteen in the afternoon. He'd slept like crap, still so pissed off at what had happened the night before that his adrenal glands were working overtime. Which was hardly conductive to shut-eye.

He reached for a blunt and lit it. As he drew the red smoke into his lungs and held on tight, he tried not to imagine going to Dimitri's room and waking the brother up with a jaw shot. But the fantasy was righteous appealing.

Damned it, he couldn't believe D had tried to Rose like that, and actually hated his twin for the depravity. Hater himself, too, for being stupidly surprised. For so long he'd been sure that something had survived D's slavery…that some small flicker of a soul was left in the male. After last night? No more doubts about his twin's cruel nature. None.

And, shit, the real ass burner was knowing he'd let Rose down. He should have never left her in D's room. Couldn't stand that he'd sacrificed her safety for his need to believe.

Rose…

He thought about how she'd allowed him to hold her. In those fleeting moments he'd felt powerful, capable of protecting her against an army of _lessers_. For that short time, she'd transformed him into a true male, one who was needed and served a purpose.

What a revelation to be something other than a reaction half-wit chasing after a destructive, suicidal madman.

He'd desperately wanted to stay the night with her, and he'd left only because it was the right thing to do. She was exhausted, but more than that—and in spite of his vow of celibacy—he was untrustworthy. He'd wanted to succor her with his body. He'd wanted to worship her and make her whole with his skin and bones.

But he couldn't think like that.

Adrian inhaled deeply on the blunt, his breath going in with a hiss. Keeping the smoke inside him, he felt the tension ease out of his shoulders. As the calm came over him, he eyed his stash. It was running low already, and as much as he hated going to see the Rev, he needed more.

Yeah, considering how he was feeling toward D, he was going to need a lot more. Red smoke was just a mild muscle relaxant, really, nothing like marijuana or any of the dangerous stuff. But he relied on the blunts to keep him level, like other folks used cocktails. If he didn't have to go to the Rev to get the stuff, he's say that it was a perfectly harmless pastime.

Perfectly harmless and the only ease he had in life.

When he was finished with the hand-rolled, he stabbed the little end in an ashtray and got out of bed, and into the bathroom to shower and shave; then pulled on a pair of slacks and one of his silk shirts, and pushed his feet into a pair of Cole Haan loafers.

He checked himself in the mirror. Smothered his hair, and took a breath.

He went to the bedroom next to his and knocked softly. When there was no answer he tried again, and then opened the door. The bed was mussed, but empty, and she wasn't in the bathroom.

As he walked back out to that hall, alarm rang in his ears. Before he knew it he was in a jog, then a run. He raced past the statuary corridor. He didn't bother knocking on D's door, just threw it open.

Adrian stopped dead.

His first thought was that Dimitri was going to fall off the bed. The brother's body was on top of the comforter and right on the edge of the mattress, as far over as possible. _Jesus_…The position looked uncomfortable as hell. D's arms were wrapped around his bare chest as if he were holding himself together, and his legs were bent and twisted to the side with the knees hanging in midair.

But his head was turned in the opposite direction. Toward Rose. And those distorted lips were parted ever so slightly instead of sneering. And his brows, usually drawn down in aggression, were loose, relaxed.

His expression was one of somnolent awe.

Rose's face was tilted up to the male beside her, her expression as peaceful as nightfall. And her body was cuddled up next to D's, as close as all the sheets and blankets she was under would let her get. Hell, it was obvious that if she could have been wrapped around him, she would have been. And it was just as obvious that D had tried to get away from her until he could go no farther.

Adrian cursed softly. Whatever had been going on the night before, the situation had not been about D pulling a nasty on her. No way. Not with what the pair of them looked like now.

He closed his eyes. Shut the door.

Like a total lunatic, he briefly considered going back in and fighting Dimitri for the right to lie next to her. He could see himself throwing the hand-to-hand around, having and old- fashioned _cohntehst _with his twin over who was allowed to have her.

But this was not the Old Country. And females had the right to choose who they sought out. Who they slept beside. Who they mated with.

And she had known where Adrian stayed. He'd told her his room was right next door. If she had wanted to, she could have turned to him.

**Ok so let me know what you guys think of this chapter I hope that this changes your fears into happiness that she didn't know it was Dimitri standing over her. **

**How about Adrian? What do you think he's going to do or say now that he knows it was all a mistake?**

**Let me know! Love you Guys**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ok a little clarification on the marking on her stomach.**

**When a Black daggerhood brother gets married, by their old customs each of the brothers write a letter of the females name on the males back with a dagger, then when each letter of the females name is written they put salt on the open wound so it doesn't heal, and the females name is always with them.**

**No Rose is not really married to Nathan, but you can imagine how she feels she is married to Nathan.**

**So is there anymore questions?**

**I see that I have a lot of views and not many reviews, usually I wouldn't mind but I can't figure out if you guys like this story or not?**

**If not I'll delete it and write something different, but it would be awesome for more reviews!:)**

**Love you Guys**

Chapter Nine

D became aware of the oddest sensation as he came out of sleep: He was warm. Not overheated, just…warm. Had he forgotten to turn the heat off again after Rose had left? Must be it. Except he noticed something else. He wasn't on the pallet. And he had pants on, didn't he? He moved his legs around, trying to pin that one down, thinking that he always slept naked. As his warm-ups shifted, he realized that _it_ was hard. Hard and heavy. _What the f—_

His eyes popped open. _Rose_. He was on the bed with Rose.

He jerked away from her—

And fell off the mattress, landing on his ass.

Instantly she scrambled after him. "Dimitri?"

As she leaved over the side, the rove she was wearing fell open and his eyes latched onto the breast that was exposed. She was just as perfect as she'd been in the tub, her pale skin so smooth and her little nipple so pink…God, he knew the other one was just the same, but for some reason he needed to see it anyway.

"Dimitri?" She stretched down farther, her hair slipping off her shoulder and pouring over the edge of the bed, a gorgeous fall of deep mahogany.

The _it_ between his thighs strained. Pulsed with the beat of his heart.

He jacked his knees up and clamped his thighs together, not wanting her to see.

"Your robe," he said roughly. "Close it. Please."

She glanced down and then dragged the lapels together, blushing. _Oh, hell…_Now her cheeks were as pink as her nipple, he thought.

"Will you come back to bed?" she asked.

The very well buried, decent part of him pointed out that wasn't a good idea.

"Please?" She whispered, tucking her hair behind her ear.

He measure the arch of her body and the black satin that barred her skin from his stare and her wide, sapphire blue eyes and the slender column of her throat.

No…it _really_ was not a good idea to get near her right now.

"Move over," He said.

As she shuffled back, he glanced down at the tent between his legs. Christ, that damned thing in there was huge; he looked like he had another arm in his pants. And hiding a log like that would require scaffolding.

He eyed the bed. In a smooth movement he hopped between the sheets.

Which was an _achingly_ bad idea. The moment he was underneath, she molded herself to his hard edges until she was another blanket. A soft, warm, breathing…

D panicked. There was so much of her against him that he didn't know what to do. He wanted to shove her away. He wanted her even closer. He wanted…_Oh, man._ He wanted to mount her. He wanted to take her. He wanted to fuck her.

The instinct was so strong he saw himself doing the deed: rolling her onto her stomach, pulling her hips off the bed, rearing up behind her. He imagined pushing the _it _inside of her and pumping with his hips—

God, he was _loathsome._ To want to take that dirty thing and force it into her? He might as well shove a toilet brush in her mouth.

"You tremble…" she said. "Are you cold?"

She shifted even closer to him, and he felt her breast, soft warm, on the back of his forearm. The _it_ twitched wildly, popping against his pants.

_Shit._ He had a feeling that punch action meant he was dangerously aroused.

_Yeah, ya think?_ Hell, the bastard was throbbing, and the balls under the thing ached, and he was having visions of rutting on her like a bull. Except a female's fear was the only thing that got it hard, and she wasn't scared. So what was he responding to?

"Dimitri?" She said softly.

"What?"

The four words she spoke next turned his chest into a cinder block and made his blood freeze up solid. But at least all that other crap went away.

When Adrian's door opened without any warning, his hands froze on the T-shirt he was pulling over his head.

Dimitri stood between the jamb, naked to the waist, black eyes burning.

Adrian cursed softly. "I'm glad you came. About last night…I owe you an apology."

"I don't want to hear it. Come with me."

"D, I was wrong to—"

"Come. With. Me."

Adrian yanked the shirt hem down and checked his watch. "I have to teach class in a half hour."

"This won't take long."

"Ah…well, okay."

As he followed D down the hall, he figured they could get through the apology on the road.

"Look, Dimitri, I'm really sorry about last night." His twin's silence was not a surprise. "I jumped to the wrong conclusion. About you and Rose." D walked even fast. "I should have known you wouldn't hurt her. I would offer you a _rythe_."

Dimitri stopped and glared over his shoulder. "What the hell for?"

"I offended you. Last night."

"No, you didn't."

Adrian could only shake his head. "Dimitri—"

"I _am_ sick. I _am_ disgusting. I_ can't _be trusted. Just because you've got half a brain and have figured that out doesn't mean you need to stroke my ass with this apology bullshit."

Adrian's mouth dropped. "Jesus…D. You're not—"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, will you get the lead out?"

D marched down to his room and opened his door.

Rose sat up on the bed, gathering the lapels of the silk rove close to her neck. She seemed totally confused. And too beautiful for words.

Adrian looked back and forth between her and D. Then he focused on his twin. "What is this?"

D's black eyes stuck to the floor. "Go to her."

"Excuse me?"

"She needs to feed."

Rose made a choked noise, like she swallowed a gasp. "No, wait, Dimitri, I want…you."

"You can't have me."

"But I want—"

"Tough. I'm out of here."

Adrian felt himself get shoved into the room and then the door slammed shut. In the silence that followed, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to scream with triumph or…just plain scream.

He took a deep breath and glanced at the bed. Rose was curled up on herself, her knees to her chest.

Good God, he'd never let a female drink from him before. As a celibate, he hadn't wanted to risk it. With his sexual urges and his warrior blood, he'd always been afraid that if he let a female take his vein, he'd become overwhelmed and try to get inside her. And if it Rose, he'd find it even harder to stay in neutral.

But she needed to drink. Besides, what good was a vow if it was easy to uphold? This could be his crucible, his chance to probe his discipline under the most extreme circumstances.

He cleared his throat. "I would offer myself to you."

As Rose's eyes lifted to his, his skin got too small for his skeleton. Which was what rejection did to a male. Just shriveled you right up.

He looked away and thought of Dimitri, who he could sense, was right outside the room. "He may not be able to do this. You are aware of his…background, aren't you?"

"Is it too cruel of me to ask?" Her voice was full of strain, deepened by her conflict. "Is it?"

_Probably_, he thought.

"It would be better if you used someone else." _God, why can't you take me? Why can't you need me instead?_ "I don't think it would be appropriate to ask Abe, or Christian, as they are mated. Maybe I could get E—"

"No…I need Dimitri." Her hand shook as she brought it to her mouth. "I'm so sorry."

So was he. "Wait here."

When he stepped out into the hall, he found D just beyond the door. The males head was in his hands, his shoulders caved in.

"Is it over with so fast?" He asked, dropping his arms.

"No. It didn't happen."

D frowned and looked over. "Why not? You gotta do it, man. You heard Olendski—"

"She wants you."

"—so will you go in there and open a vein—"

"She'll only have you."

"She needs it, so just—"

Adrian raised his voice. "I won't feed her!"

D's mouth clamped shut and his black eyes narrowed. "Fuck you. You will do this for me."

"No, I won't." _Because she won't let me._

D surged forward, locking a vise grop on Adrian's shoulder. "Then you will this for her. Because it's the best thing for her and because you're feeling her and because you want to. Do this for _her_."

_Christ._ He would kill to. He dying to go back into D's bedroom. Rip off his clothes. Fall onto the mattress. And have Rose crawl up his chest and sink her teeth into his neck and straddle him, taking him inside of herself both between her lips and between her thighs.

D's nostrils flared. "God…I can smell how badly you want to do this. So go. Be with her, feed her."

Adrian's voice cracked. "She won't have me, D. She wants—"

"She doesn't know what she wants. She's coming out of hell."

"You are the one. For her, you are the one." As Dimitri eyes slid to the closed door, Adrian pushed, even though it killed him. "Listen to what I'm saying, my brother. She wants you. And you can do this for her."

"The hell I can."

"D, do it."

D's head shook back and forth, "Come on, the shit in my veins is corroded. You know that."

"No, it isn't."

With a snarl, D leaned back and held out his wrists, flashing the blood-slave bands tattooed at his pulse points. "You want her biting through these? Can you stand the thought of her mouth on them? Because I sure as hell can't."

"Dimitri?" Rose's voice drifted over. Without their noticing, she'd gotten up and opened the door.

As D's eyes squeezed shut, Adrian whispered, "You are the one she wants."

D's reply was barely audible. "I'm contaminated. My blood will kill her."

"No. It won't."

"Please…Dimitri," Rose said.

The sound of the humble yearning request turned Adrian's ribs into a cage of ice, and he watched, frozen, numbed out, as D slowly turned to her.

Rose stepped back a little, keeping her eyes on him.

Minutes became days…decades…centuries.

And then Dimitri walked over and went inside. The door closed.

Adrian was blind as be pivoted away and went down the corridor.

Wasn't there someplace he needed to be?

Class. Yes, he was going to…to teach a class now.

Rose watched Dimitri pace around the bedroom. He reminded her of how she'd felt the night before when she'd sought him out: Caged. Miserable. Pushed to hard.

Why the hell was she forcing this?

As she opened her mouth to call off the whole thing, Dimitri stopped in front of the bathroom door.

"I need a minute," he said. Then he shut himself away.

At a loss, she went over and sat on the bed, expecting him to be right back out. When the shower came on and stayed on, she fell into a churning introspection.

She tried to picture herself going back to her family's house and walking through those familiar rooms and sitting in chairs and opening doors and sleeping in her childhood bed. It felt all wrong, like she'd be a ghost in that place she knew so well.

And how would she deal with her mother and her brother? And the _glymera?_

In the aristocratic world she'd been disgraced before she'd been abducted. Now she would be shunned outright. Being handled by a _lesser_…trapped in the ground…The aristocracy didn't handle that kind of ugliness well, and they would blame her. Hell, that was probably why her mother had bees so reserved.

_God, _Rose thought. What was the rest of her life going to be like now?

As dread choked her, the only thing that held her together was the thought of staying in this room and sleeping for days with Dimitri right next to her. He was the cold that made her condense into her again. And the heat that stopped her from shivering.

He was the killer who made her safe.

More time…more time with him first. Then maybe she could face the outside world.

She frowned, realizing he'd been in the shower for quite a while.

Her eyes shifted to the pallet in the far corner. How did he sleep there night after night? The floor would be so hard on his back, and there no pillow for his head. No covers to pull up against the chill, either.

She focused on the skull beside the folded blankets. The black leather strap between the teeth proclaimed it as one he had loved. Obviously he had been mated, though she hadn't heard that in the rumors about him. Had his _shellan_ gone unto the Fade of natural causes or had she been taken from him? Was that why he was so angry?

Rose looked toward the bathroom. What was he doing in there?

She went over and knocked. When there was no answer, she opened the door slowly. A cold rush shot out and she jerked back.

Bracing herself, she leaned into the freezing air. "Dimitri?"

Through the glass door of the shower, she saw him sitting under an ice-cold spray of water. He was rocking back and forth, moaning, scrubbing his wrists with a washcloth.

"_Dimitri_!" She ran over and pushed the glass aside. Fumbling with the fixtures, she turned off the water. "What are you doing?"

"I…I can't get clean. I don't want you to get dirty, too." He lifted his wrist and blood oozed down his forearm. "See? Look at the dirt. It's all over me. Inside of me."

His voice alarmed her even more than what he'd done to himself, his words carrying the eeri, groundless logic of insanity.

Rose picked up a towel, stepped inside the stall, and fell into a crouch. Capturing his hands, she took the washcloth from him.

As she carefully dried off his ragged flash, she said, "You are clean."

"Oh, no, I'm not. I'm really not." His voice started to rise, a terrible momentum growing. "I'm filthy. I am so very dirty. I am dirty, dirty…" Now he babbled, the words running together, the volume lifting until hysteria pinged off the tiles and filled the bathroom. "Can you see the dirt? I see it _everywhere._ It coats me. It seals me in. I can fee it on my skin—"

"Shh. Let me…just…"

Keeping an eye on him, as if he were going to…God, she didn't even know what…she grabbed blindly for another towel and dragged it into the shower. With a reach around his big shoulders, she draped him in it, but when she tried to pull him into her arms, he shrank back.

_"Don't touch me," _he rasped. "You'll get it on you."

She sank down to her knees in front of him, her silk rove catching the water, drinking it up. She didn't even notice the cold.

_Jesus_…He looked like someone who'd been in a shipwreck: his eyes wide and demented, his soaked sweatpants clinging to the muscles of his legs, the skin of his chest covered in good bumps. His lips were blue and his teeth chattered.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. And she wanted to reassure him that there was no dirt on him, but knew that would just set him off again.

As water dripped from the showerhead onto the tile, the rhythmic sound was loud as a snare drum between them. In between the beats, she found herself remember the night she'd followed him up to this room…the night when he'd touched her aroused body. Ten minutes after he had, she'd found him curled over the toilet, throwing up because he'd put his hand on her.

_I'm filthy. I am so very dirty. I am dirty, dirty…_

Clarity came to her in the shifting way of a nightmare, cleaving into consciousness with chilling illumination, showing her something ugly. It was obvious he'd been beaten as a blood slave, and she'd assumed that was why he didn't like to be touched. Except getting hit, however painful and frightening, didn't make you feel dirty.

But sexual abuse would do it.

His black eyes suddenly focused on her face. As if he'd felt the conclusion that had found her.

Driven by sympathy, she leaned in toward him, but the anger that bled into his face stopped her.

"Christ, female," he snapped. "Will you cover yourself?"

She glanced down. Her robe was open to her waist, the swells of her breasts showing. She yanked the lapels together.

In the tight silence it was hard to meet his stare, so she focused on his shoulder…then followed the line of muscle to hiss collarbone, to the base of his neck. Her eyes drifted up his thick throat…to the vein that pumped just under his skin.

Hunger shot through her, making her fangs elongate. _Oh, hell_. Like she needed bloodlust right now?

"Why do you want me?" he muttered, clearly sensing her need. "You're better than this."

"You are—"

_"I know_ what I am."

"You are not dirty."

"Damn it, Rose—"

"And I only want you. Look, I'm really sorry, and we don't have to—"

"You know what? No more talking. I'm tired of the talking." He stretched his arm out on his knee, wrist up, and his black eyes became devoid of any emotion, even anger. "It's you funeral, female. Do it if you want."

Time stopped as she stared at what he grudgingly offered. God help them both, but she was going to have him. With a quick move she arched over his vein and scored him cleanly though it must have hurt, he didn't jerk at all.

The instant his blood hit her tongue, she moaned in bliss she'd fed from aristocrats before, but never form a male of the warrior class, and certainly never, ever a member of the Brotherhood. His taste was a delicious roar in her mouth, an invasion, an epic, screaming blast, and then she swallowed. The torrent of his power ripped through her, a forest fire in the marrow of her bones, and explosion that pumped into heart in a glorious rush of strength.

She trembled so badly she almost lost contact with his wrist and had to grab onto his forearm to steady herself. She drank in great, greedy pulls, starved not just for the strength, but for him, for this male.

For her, he was…the one.

Dimitri fought to keep still as Rose fed. He didn't want to disturb her, but with every pull on his vein he was getting closer to losing it. the Mistress was the only one who'd ever fed from him, and the memories of those violations were as sharp as the fangs buried in his wrist now. Fear came to him, hard and vivid, no shadow of the past anymore, now a very present panic.

_Holy shit…_ He was going totally light-headed here. About to black out like a stone-cold sissy.

In a desperate attempt to bring himself back to center, he focused on Rose's dark hair. There was a lock of it close to his free hand, and the strand gleamed in the shower's overhead light, so lovely, so thick, so different from the Mistress's blond.

God, Rose's hair looked really soft…if he'd had the nerve, he would bury his hand—no, his whole face—in those mahogany waves. Could he handle that? He wondered. Being so close to a female? Or would he choke when even more fear hit him?

If it was Rose, he thought he might be able to do it.

Yeah…he'd really like his face there, in her hair. Maybe he would burrow through it and find his way to her neck and he would…press a kiss to her throat. Just real softly. Yeah…and then he might move up and brush his lips against her cheek. Maybe she would let him do that. He wouldn't go near her mouth. He couldn't imagine she'd want to be that close to his scar and his upper lip was all fucked up anyway. Besides, he didn't know how to kiss. The Mistress and her minions had known enough to keep away from his fangs. And afterward he'd never wanted to get that tight with a female.

Rose paused and tilted her head, her dark eyes shifting up to his, checking to make sure he was okay.

The concern bit into his pride. Christ, to think he was so weak that he couldn't handle feeding a female…and what a cringer to realize she _knew_ this while she was at his vein. Even worse, there had been that expression on her face a few moments ago, that dawning horror that meant she'd figured out what else he's been used for as a slave other than his blood.

He couldn't stand her sympathy, didn't want those worried looks, wasn't interested in being coddled and stroked. He opened his mouth, ready to take her head off, but somehow the anger got lost on the trip between his gut and his throat.

"It's okay," he said roughly. "Rock steady up here. Rock steady."

The relief in those eyes of hers was another slap in the ass.

As she started drinking again, he thought, _I hate this._

Well…some of it he hated. Okay, the shit in his head he hated. But as the gentle pulls on his wrist continued, he realized he kind of liked them.

As least until he thought about what she was swallowing. Dirty blood…rusted blood…corroded, infected, nasty blood. Man, he just couldn't fathom why she'd turned down Adrian. The male was perfect inside and out. Yet here she was on cold, hard tile, biting through a slave band with him. Why did she…

Dimitri shut his eyes. No doubt after all she'd been through, she figured she deserved no better than someone who was polluted. That _lesser_ had probably torn the self-respect right out of her.

Man, as God was his witness, he was going to have that bastard's last breath squeezing out between his palms.

With a sign, Rose released his wrist and eased back against the shower wall, her lids low, her body limp. The silk of the dressing down was wet and it clung to her legs, outlining her thighs, he hips…the juncture in their midst.

As the _it_ in his pants thickened in a rush, he wanted to cut the thing off.

Her eyes lifted to his. He half expected her to go into seizures or something, and he tried not to think of all that ugliness she'd swallowed.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Thank you," she said huskily. "Thank you for letting me—"

"Yeah, you can stop that." God, he wished he'd protected her from himself. The Mistress's very essence pumped through him, the echoes of the female's cruelty trapped within the endless circuit of his arteries and veins, going around and around his body. And Rose had just taken some of that poison into her gut.

He should have fought harder against this.

"I'm going to carry you to the bed," He said.

When she didn't object, he picked her up, took her out of the shower, and paused by the sink to grab a towel for her.

"The mirror," she murmured. "You covered the mirror. Why?"

He didn't answer her as he headed for the bedroom, couldn't bear to talk about the horrible things she'd endured.

"Do I look so bad to you?" she whispered into his shoulder.

When he got to the bed, he set her on her feet. "The rose is wet. You should take it off. Use this to dry if you want."

She took the towel and started to loosen the tie at her waist. He quickly turned around, listening to a rush of cloth, some flapping, then the shifting of sheets.

As she settled in, some very base, ancient core of him demanded that he lay with her now. And not as in hold her. He wanted to be inside of her, moving…releasing. Somehow that seemed like the right thing to do, to give her not just the blood in his veins but the completion of the sexual act, too.

Which was _totally_ fucked up.

He dragged a hand through his hair, wondering where the hell that bad idea had come from. Man, he had to get away from her—

Well, that was going to happen soon, wasn't it. She was leaving tonight. Leaving to go home.

**Ok guys this one was over four thousand words! Whew! **

**So let me know what you think! Was this one any good? **

**Remember to Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ok guys I want to thank everyone for the awesome reviews, and no I won't delete the story, and I do write because I love to write, but it is still nice to know you story in appreciated.**

**Do you think Authors continue to write the same series if they don't sell enough books in that series? No. They have to have feedback, and readers to continue writing also. It's just how things are done. **

**So please do not take offense to my comment, I just had to know that people actually like the story, if not then I would have pursued other stories!:) **

**Once again thank you to all of those who reviewed!**

Chapter Ten

His instincts went nuts, making him want to fight to make her stay in his bed. But screw that stupid, primeval core of him. He needed to go do his job. He needed to go out and find that one particular _lesser_ and slaughter the fucker for her. That was what he had to do.

D headed for the closet, pulled on a shirt, and armed up. As he grabbed for his chest holster, he considered asking her for a description of the slayer who'd taken her. Except he didn't want to traumatize her…No, he would get Adrian to ask, because the brother would handle that kind of thing well. When she was returned to her family tonight, he would have Adrian talk to her then.

"I'm heading out," D said as he buckled the leather dagger holder across his ribs. "You want me to have Daniel bring you good before you go?"

When there was no answer, he looked around the doorjamb. She was one her side, watching him.

Another wave of heavy-handed instinct pounded through him.

He wanted to see her eat. After the sex, after he came inside of her, he wanted to have her eat food he'd brought her, and he wanted her take the stuff from his hand. Hell, he wanted to go out and kill something for her, bring the meat back, cook it himself, and feed her until she was full. Then he wanted to lie beside her with a dagger in his hand, protecting her as she slept.

He ducked back into the closet. Man, he was going crazy. Straight-up _loco_.

"I'll have him bring you something," he said.

He checked the blades on his two black daggers, testing them on the inside of his forearm, slicing into his skin. As the pain tingled into brain, he stared at the puncture marks Rose had left on his wrist.

Shaking himself back into focus, he put his gun holster around his hips and ran through his twin SIG Sauer's. Both nine-millimeters had full bullet loads, and there were another two clips hollow tips on the belt. He slipped a throwing knife into a buckle at the small of his back and made sure he had some _hira shuriken_ with him. Boots were next. Light windbreaker to cover the portable arsenal was last.

When he came out, Rose was still looking up at him from the bed. Her eyes were so dark. Dark as the midnight sky. Dark as—

"Dimitri?"

He fought the urge to smack himself. "Yeah?"

"Am I ugly to you?" As he recoiled, she put her hands over her face. "Never mind."

While she hid from him, he thought of the very first moment he'd seen her, back when she'd surprised him in the gym so many weeks ago. She'd astounded him then, struck him dead-stupid in his boots, and she still had that effect on his brain. It was like he had an off switch that only she had the remote to.

He cleared his throat. "You are as you have always been to me."

He turned away, only to hear a sob. Then another. And another.

He looked over his shoulder. "Rose…holy hell…"

"I'm sorry," she said into her palms. "I'm s-sorry. Just go. I'm f-fine…I'm sorry, I'm fine."

As he went over and sat on the edge of the bed, he wished he had the gift of words. "ou've got nothing to be sorry for."

"I've invaded you room, your b-bed. Forced you to sleep next to me. M-made you give me you vein. I'm so…sorry." She took a deep breath and collected herself, but even still her despair lingered, carrying the earthy scent of raindrops on a hot sidewalk. "I know I should leave here, I know you don't want me here, but I just need…I can't go to my house. The _lesser_ took me from there, so I can't stand the idea of going back. And I don't want to be with my family. They won't understand what's going on for me right now, and I don't have the energy to explain. I just need some time, I need some way to get what is in my head out of it, but I can't be alone. Even though I don't want to see anyone except…"

As she petered out, he said, "You stay here for as long as you want."

She started sobbing again. _Damn it._ That was the wrong thing to say.

"Rose…I…" What was he supposed to do?

_Reach out to her, asshole. Take her hand, you piece of shit._

He couldn't do it. "You want me to move out? Give you some space?"

More crying, somewhere in the middle of which she mumbled, "I need you."

God, if he heard that right, he pitied her.

"Rose stop crying. Stop crying and look at me." Eventually she took a deep breath and wiped her face. When he was sure he had her attention, he said, "You don't worry about anything. You're staying here as long as you want to. Are we clear?"

She just stared at him.

"Nod for me, so I know you heard that." When she did, he stood up. "And I'm the last thing you need. so you just drop that bullshit right now."

"But I—"

He headed for the door. "I'll be back before dawn. Daniel knows how to find me—er, all of us."

After leaving her, D strode down the corridor of statues, hung a loui, and shot past Abe's study and the grand staircase. Three doors down he knocked. No answer. He knocked again.

He headed downstairs and found what he was looking for in the kitchen.

Lissa, Christian's female, was peeling potatoes. A lot of potatoes. Like, and army load of them. Her green eyes lifted and her paring knife stilled on an Idaho golden. She glanced around, as if figuring he must be looking for someone else. Or maybe she just hoped she wasn't alone with him.

"Could you put this off for a while?" D said, nodding at the pile.

"um, sure. Christian can always eat something else. Besides, Daniel in having a conniption that I was going to cook, anyway. What…ah, what do you need?"

"Not me. Rose. She could use a friend right now."

Lissa put the knife and the half-naked potato down. "I'm so anxious to see her."

"She's in my room." D pivoted around, already thinking about which alleys to hit downtown.

"Dimitri?"

He stopped with his hand on the butler's door. "What."

"You're taking very good care of her."

He thought of the blood he'd let her swallow. And the urge to orgasm in her body.

"Not really," he said over his shoulder.

~~BDBHVA~~

Rose woke up hours later to a soft scraping sound. She glanced over to a window and watched as its steel shutter came down. Dawn must be close.

Anxiety tingled in her chest, and she looked at the door. She wanted Dimitri to come through it, wanted to clap her eyes on him and reassure herself he was in one piece. Even though he'd seemed back to normal when he'd left, she'd put him through a lot.

She rolled over onto her back and though about Lissa showing up. How had Dimitri known she'd needed a friend? And God, the fact that he'd gone to Lissa and—

The bedroom door opened wide without any warning.

Rose sat up in a rush, pulling the covers to her throat. But then Dimitri's shadow was a stunning relief.

"it's just me," he said gruffly. As he came inside, he was carrying a tray, and there was something on his shoulder. A duffel bag. "You mind if I hit the lights?"

"Hi…" _I'm so glad you're home safe. "_Not at all."

He called to life several candles, and she blinked in the sudden glow.

"I brought you some things from your house." He put the tray of food on the bedside table and opened up the bag. "I got you clothes and a parka. The bottle of shampoo that was in your shower. A brush. Shoes. Socks to keep your feet warm. Your diary, too—don't worry, I haven't read it or anything."

"I'd be surprised if you had. You're more trustworthy than that."

"No, I'm illiterate."

Her eyes flared.

"Anyway"—his voice was hard as his jaw line—"I figured you'd want some of your own stuff."

As he put the duffel next to her on the bed, she just stared up at him until, overwhelmed, she reached out to take his hand. When he flinched back, she flushed and looked at what he'd brought her.

God…she was nervous about seeing her things. Especially the diary.

Except it turned out to be comforting to pull out her favorite red sweater, put the thing to her nose, and catch a whiff of the perfume she'd always worn. And…yes, the brush, _her_ brush, the one she liked with the broad, square head and metal bristles. She grabbed her shampoo, popped the top, and inhaled. _Ahhh…_Biolage. Nothing like the scent of the _lesser_ had made her use.

"Thank you." Her voice trembled as she took out her journal. "Thank you so much."

She stroked her diary's leather cover. She would not open it. not now. But soon…

She glanced up at Dimitri. "Will you…will you take me back to my house?"

"Yeah. I can do that."

"I'm frightened to go there, but I probably should."

"You just tell me when."

Gathering her courage, suddenly interested in getting one of the big "firsts" out of the wat, she said, "When light falls this evening. I want to go then."

"Okay, we will." He pointed at the tray. "Now eat."

Ignoring the food, she watched him go into the closet and disarm. He was careful with his weapons, checking them thoroughly, and she wondered where he had been..what he had done. Though his hands were clean, there was black blood on his forearms.

He had killed tonight.

She supposed she should feel some kind of triumph that a _lesser_ had been taken down. But as Dimitri walked over to the bathroom with a pair of sweats draped over his arm, she was more interested in his well-being.

And also…his body. He moved like an animal in the best sense of the word, all latent power and sleek strides. The sex that had stirred in her the very first time she'd seen him rocked her again. She wanted him.

As the bathroom door shut and the shower started to run, she rubbed her eyes and decided she was out of her mind. The male pulled away the threat of her hand on his arm. Did she actually think he'd want to lay with her?

Disgusted with herself, she looked over at the food. It was some kind of herbed chicken with roasted potatoes and squash. There was a glass of water and a glass of white wine, as well as two bright green Granny Smith apples and a piece of carrot cake. She picked up a fork and pushed the chicken around. She wanted to eat what was on the plate only because he'd been thoughtful enough to bring it to her.

When Dimitri came out of the bathroom with only the nylon sweats on, she froze and couldn't stop staring. His nipple rings caught the candlelight, and so did the hard muscles of his stomach and arms. Along with the star-shaped mark of the Brotherhood, his bare chest had a fresh, livid scratch across it and a bruise.

"Are you injured?"

He came over and measured the plate. "You haven't eaten much."

She didn't reply as her eyes got caught on the curving hip bones that rose above the low waistband of the sweats. God…just a little lower and she would be able to see everything.

Abruptly she remembered him scrubbing himself raw because he thought he was filthy. She swallowed, wondering what had been done to him, to his sex. Wanting him as she did seemed…inappropriate. Invasive. Not that it changed the way she felt.

"I'm not terribly hungry," she murmured.

He pushed the tray closer to her. "Eat anyway."

When she started in on the chicken again, he took the two apples and walked across the room. He bit into one and sank down to the floor, sitting cross-legged with his eyes lowered. One arm settled across his stomach as he chewed.

"Did you have dinner downstairs?" She asked.

He shook his head and took another hunk out of the apple, the crack ricocheting around the room.

"Is that all you'll have?" When he shrugged, she muttered, "And you're telling me to eat?"

"Yeah, I am. So why don't you get back to work there, female."

"You don't like chicken?"

"I don't like food." His eyes never wavered from the floor, but his voice got pushier. "Now eat."

"Why don't you like food?"

"Can't trust it," he said tightly. "Unless you make it yourself, or can see it whole, you don't know what's in it."

"Why do you think someone would tamper—"

"Have I mentioned how much I don't like talking?"

"Will you sleep beside me tonight?" She blurted out the request, figuring she'd better get her answers before he shut up completely.

His brows flickered. "You really want that?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then, yeah. I will."

As he polished off the two apples and she cleaned the plate, the silence wasn't exactly easy, but it didn't crackle, either. After she was finished with the carrot cake, she went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. By the time she came back he was working the last apple core with his fangs, picking off the little bits of flesh that were left.

She couldn't imagine how he fought on such a diet. Surely he must eat more.

And she felt like she should say something, but instead stil into bed and curled up, waiting for him. As minutes ticked by, all he did was surgically trim that apple, she could stand the tension.

_Enough,_ she thought. She really should go somewhere else in the house. She was using him as a crutch, and that wasn't fair.

She reached out to throw the covers back just as he uncoiled from the floor. As he walked to the bed, she froze. He dropped the apple cores next to her plate, then picked up the napkin she had used to wipe her own mouth. After rubbing his hands with the thing, he took the tray and carried it out of the room, setting it right outside the door.

When he came back he went to the other side of the bed, and the mattress dipped down as he stretched out on top of the duvet. Crossing his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles, he shut his eyes.

One by one the candles went out around the room. When there was just a single wick that burned, he said, "I'll leave that going so you can see."

She looked at him. "Dimitri?"

"Yeah?"

"When I was…" She cleared her throat. "When I was in the hole in the ground, I thought of you. I wanted you to come for me. I knew you could get me out."

His brows went down even though his lids were lowered. "I thought about you, too."

"You did?" His chin moved up and down, and still she said, "Really?"

"Yeah. Some days…you were all I could think about."

Rose felt her eyes stretch wide. She rolled toward him and propped her head up on one arm.

"Seriously?" When he didn't reply, she had to press. "Why?"

His big chest expanded and he blew out his breath. "Wanted to get you back. That's all."

Oh…so he'd just been doing his job.

Rose dropped her arm and turned away from him. "Well…thank you for coming for me."

In the silence that stretched, she watched the candle burn on the nightstand. The tear-shaped flame undulated, so lovely, so graceful…

Dimitri's voice was quiet. "I hated the idea that you were frightened and alone. That someone had hurt you. I couldn't let it go."

Rose stopped breathing and glanced over her shoulder.

"I didn't sleep for those six weeks," he murmured. "All I could see when I shut my eyes was you, calling out for help."

God, even though his face was harsh, his voice was so soft and beautiful, like the candle flame.

His head swiveled toward her and his eyes opened. His black star was full of emotion. "I didn't know how you could have survived that long. I was so sure you were dead. But then we found the place I lifted you out of that hole. When I saw what he'd done to you…"

Rose slowly turned over, not wanted to startle him into a retreat. "I don't remember any of it."

"Good, that's good."

"Someday…I'm going to need to know. Will you tell me?"

He closed his eyes. "If you really have to have the details."

They were silent for a time, and then he shifted toward her, rolling onto his side. "I hate to ask you this, but what did he look like? Can you remember anything specific about him?"

_Plenty,_ she thought. _Too much._

"He, ah, he colored his hair brown."

"What?"

"I mean, I'm pretty sure he did. Every week or so he'd go into the bathroom and I could smell the chemicals. And he'd get rooty in between. A little line of white right at his scalp.

"But I thought paling out was good because it meant they'd been in the Society longer."

"I don't know. I think he had…or has…a position of power. From what I could hear from the hole, the other _lessers _were careful around him. And they called him 'O.'"

"Anything else?"

She shivered, going back into the nightmare. "He loved me."

A growl vibrated out of Dimitri, low and nasty. She liked the sound of it. It made her feel protected. Gave her the strength to keep talking.

"The _lesser_, he said he…loved me, and he did. He was obsessed with me." She released a breath slowly, trying to calm her fluttering heart. "In the beginning I was terrified of him, but after a while I used his feeling against him. I wanted to hurt him."

"Did you?"

"Sometimes, yes. I made him…cry."

Dimitri's expression took on the oddest cast. As if her were…envious. "What did that feel like?"

"I don't want to say."

Because if felt good?"

"I don't want you to think I'm cruel."

Cruelty is different from retaliation."

In a warriors world, she imagined that was true. "I'm not sure I agree."

His black eyes narrowed. "There are those who would _ahvenge_ you. You know that right."

She thought about him going out into the night to hunt the _lesser_ and couldn't bear the idea that he would get hurt. Then she pictured her brother all angry and prideful, ready to tear into the slayer, too.

"No…I don't want you doing that. You or Denis or anyone else."

A draft shot through the room, like a window had been thrown open. She looked around and realized the frigid wave had come out of Dimitri's body.

"Do you have a mate?" he asked abruptly.

"Why do you…Oh, no, Denis is my brother. Not my mate.

Those big shoulders eased up. But then he frowned. "Have you ever?"

"Had a mate? For a little while I did. But things didn't work out."

"Why?"

"Because of my brother." She paused. "Actually tha's not true. But when the male couldn't stand up to Den, I lost a lot of respect for him. And then…then the guy let the details of out relationship out to the _glymera_ and things got…complicated."

Actually, they got awful. The male's reputation had stayed intact, of course, whereas hers got shredded to pieces. Maybe that was why she was so attracted to Dimitri. He didn't care what anyone thought of him. There was no subterfuge, no courtly manners to hide his thoughts and instincts. He was honest, and that candor, even if it just served to reveal his anger, made it safe to trust him.

"Were you two…" His voice trailed off.

"Were we what?"

"Lovers?" In a harsh rush, Dimitri cursed. "Never mind, that's non of my—"

"Ah, yes, we were. Denis found out, and that was when the problems started. You know how the aristocracy is. A female who lays with someone she's not mated to? You'd swear she was tainted for life. I mean, I've always wished I'd been born a civilian. But you can't opt out of your bloodline, can you?"

"Did you love the male?"

"I thought so. But…no." She thought of the skull next to Dimitri's pallet. "Have you ever been in love?"

The corner of his mouth lifted into a snarl. "What the fuck do you think?"

As she recoiled, he closed his eyes. "Sorry. I mean, no. that would be a no."

Sso why did he keep that skull? Whose was it? She was about to ask when he cut the question off. "Your brother things he'd going after that _lesser?_"

"Undoubtedly. Denis is…well, he's been head of my household since my father died when I was very yound, and Den is very aggressive. Extremely so."

"Well, you tell him to sit tight. I'm going to _ahvenge you."_

Her eyes shot to Dimtri's. "No."

"Yes."

"But I don't want you to." She couldn't live with herself if he got killed in the process.

"And I can't stop myself." He squeezed his eyes shut. "Christ…I can't breathe for knowing that bastard if still out there. He had to die."

Fear and gratitue and something altogether warm squeezed her chest. On impulse, she leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

He jerked back with a hiss, eyes wider than if she'd slapped him.

_Oh, hell_. Why had she done that? "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I—"

"No, it's cool. We're cool." He rolled onto his back and lifted his hand to his mouth. His fingers rubbed back and forth across his lips, like he was wiping her off him.

When she sighed good and hard, he said, "What's the matter?"

"Am I so distasteful?"

He dropped his arm. "No."

_What a lie. _"Maybe I'll get you a washcloth, how about that?"

When she would have shot out of bed, his hand clamped on her arm. "That was my first kill, okay? I just didn't expect it."

Rose stopped breathing. How was that possible?"

"Oh, for chirssakes, don't look at me like that." He let go and went back to staring at the ceiling.

His first kiss…"Dimitri?"

"What."

"Will you let me do that again?"

There was a long, long pause. She inched over to him, pushing her body through the sheets and blankets.

"Iw on't touch you anywhere else. Just my lips. On yours."

_Turn you head,_ she willed him. _Turn you head and look at me._

And then he did.

She didn't wait for an engraved invitation or him to change his mind. She pressed her lips to his lightly, then hovered over his mouth. When he stayed where he was, she dipped down again and this timeshe stoked at him. His breath sucked in.

"Dimitri?"

"Yes," he whispered.

"Relax your mouth for me."

Careful not to crowd him, she propped herself up on her forearms and got in close again. His lips were shockingly soft except for where the upper one was scared. To make sure he knew that imperfection didn't matter to her, she deliberatly attended to that place, returning there again, and again.

And then it happened: He kissed her back, it was just the slightest movement of his mouth, but she felt it all the way to her core. When he did it again, she praised him by moaning a little and letting him take the lead.

God, he was so tentative, feeling his way accros her mouth with the most gentle of brushings. He kissed her sweetly and with care, tasting like apples and male spice. And the contact between them, though light and slow, was enough to have her aching.

When she sneaked her toungue out and licked im, he pulled away sharply. "I don't know what I'm doing here."

"Yes, you do." She leaned in to keep the connection. "You really do."

"But—"

She quieted him with her mouth, and it wasn't long before he back in the game. This time when her tongue stroked over him he opened his lips, and his own met hers, click and warm. A slow twirl started…and then he was in her mouth, pushing against her, seeking.

She felt the sex stir in him, the heat and urgency in his big body growing. She was hungry for him to reach out and drag her aginst him. When he didn't, she eased back and looked at him. His cheeks were flaming, his eyes glittering. He wa hungry for her, but he made no move to get closer. And he wouldn't either.

**Ok guys I know I'm leaving you hanging here but I want to keep you interest purked **

**So do you think he'll let her continue in her pursut? **

**Let me know what you think of this chapter?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok guys sorry I haven't updated in a few days, work has been NUTS and my husband and I are building a house so it's hard to keep up with everything lol. So let me know what you think of this chapter! **

**It's not really all that special but we are starting to get into the good part. So Read and Review please!**

**And since I have been getting bad reviews on how the story is written and the mistakes in it, I would like to inform everyone that I work, go home clean house, go to my other house and work on building it. I do not mind constructive reviews but do NOT appreciate bad reviews just because the story is not to your liking. If you don't like this story then please write you own, and leave mine along.**

**Yes this story is basically copied from Black Dagger Brotherhood if you want to read the series then by all means please do it's an awesome series.**

**But remember I do NOT own any of these characters, and if you have a problem with the mistakes in the story please step up and offer to read and correct BEFORE it is posted!**

Chapter Eleven

"I want to touch you." She said.

But as she brought her hand up, he stiffened and gripped her wrist hard. Fear hovered just below the surface of him. She could sense it weaving though his body, making him tense. She waited for him to make up his mind, not about to push him on this.

His hold slowly loosened. "Just…go slow."

"I promise."

She started with his arm, running her fingertips up and down his smooth, hairless skin. His eyes tracked the movement with a suspicion she took no offense at, and his muscle twitched, flickering as she passed. She stroked him slowly, letting him was comfortable, she leaned down and put her lips on his biceps. His shoulder. His collarbone. The top of his pectoral.

She was heading for his pierced nipple.

When she was close to the silver ring with the little ball, she glanced up at him. His eyes were wide, so wide the whites showed all around his black irises.

"I want to kiss you here," she said. "All right?"

He nodded and licked his lips.

The moment her mouth made contact, his body jerked like someone had yanked all of his arms and legs at once. She didn't stop. She sucked the piercing in and twirled her tongue around it.

Dimitri moaned, the low sound a great rumble in his chest; then he inhaled with a hiss. His head pitched back into the pillow, but he kept it at an angle so he could keep watching her

When she flicked the silver hoop, then tugged on it a little, he arched off the bed, one leg bending up, his heel digging into the mattress. She tickled his nipple again and then again until he balled the comforted in his fists.

"Oh…_God,_ Rose…" He was breathing in a hard, raw rhythm, heat radiating out of him. "What are you doing to me?"

"Do you want me to stop?"

"Either that or do it harder."

"How about a little more?"

"Yeah…a little more."

She worked him with her mouth, playing with the ring, driving him until his hips started to swivel.

When she looked down his body, she lost her rhythm. His erection was massive as it pushed up against the thin nylon of his warm-ups, and she saw all of it: the blunt head with it's graceful ridge, the thick shaft, the twin weights below.

_Good Lord._ He was…huge.

She went utterly wet between her thighs and shifted her gaze to meet his. His eyelids were still peeled back and his mouth open as awe and shock and hunger warred in his face.

She reached up and pushed her thumb between his lips. "Suck me."

He latched on with a great pull, watching her as she kept going. A frenzy was taking hold of him; she could sense it. The lust was building in him, turning him into a powder keg, and holy hell, she wanted him. She wanted him to explode all over her. Inside of her.

She released his nipple, pulled her thumb out of his mouth, and reared up to thrust her tongue between his lips. At the invasion he groaned wildly, his great body bucking against the hold he kept on the covers.

She wanted him to let go and touch her, but she couldn't wait. This first time, she would have to take control. She pushed the covers away, slid her upper body onto his chest, and threw her leg over his hips.

The instant her weight came on top of him, he went stiff and stopped kissing her back.

"Dimitri?"

He three her off of him with so much force, she bounced on the mattress.

Dimitri bolted from the bed, panting and whacked-out, his body trapped between the present and the past, stretched thin between the two.

Part of him wanted more of what Rose was doing to him. Hell, he was dying to keep exploring his first taste of arousal. The sensations were incredible. A revelation. The only thing good he'd felt in…forever.

Dear Virgin in the Fade, no wonder males kill to protect their mates.

Except he couldn't bear having a female on top of him, even if it was Rose, and the wild panic pounding through him right now was dangerous. What if he lashed out at her? For God's sake, he'd already thrown her across the damn bed.

He glanced at her. She looked so achingly beautiful in the tangled sheets and scattered pillows. But he was terrified of her, and because of that, terrified _for_ her. The touching and the kissing, however much he'd been into them in the beginning, were to much of a trigger for him. And he couldn't put himself in a position where he got this upset when he was around her.

"We're not going there again," he said. "That shit's not happening."

"You liked it." Her voice was soft but strong. "I could feel your blood under my hands."

"No arguments."

"Your body's hard for me."

"Do you want to get hurt?" As she tightened her hold on a pillow, he pressed harder. "Because, straight up, sex and I only go one way, and it's nothing you want to be part of."

"I like the way you kissed me. I want to lay with you. Make love with you."

"Make love? _Make love?" _He spread his arms out. "Rose…all I've got to offer you is fucking. You won't like it, and frankly I won't like doing it to you. You're so much better than that."

"I felt your lips on mine. They were gently—"

"Oh, _please_—"

"Shut up and let me finish!"

D's mouth dropped open, sure as if she'd booted him in the ass. No one ever took that tone of voice with him. The anomaly alone would have gotten his attention, but the fact that it was her stunned him out.

Rose pushed her hair over her shoulder. "If you don't want to be with me, fine. Just say so. But don't hide behind wanted to protect me. You think I don't know the sex would be rough with you?"

"Is that why you want it?" He asked in a dead voice. "You think you only deserve to be hurt now, after the _lesser_?"

She frowned. "Not at all. But if that's the only way I can have you, then that's how I'll take you."

He ran a hand through his chin length hair, hoping it might get his brain to working.

"I think you're confused." He looked down at the floor. "You have no idea what you're saying right now."

"You arrogant bastard," she snapped.

D's head shot up. Well, that was slap in the ass number two…"Excuse me?"

"Do us both a fovor and don't try to think for me, okay? Because you're going to get it wrong every damned time." With that, she marched into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Dimitri blinked a couple of times. _What the hell just happened?_

He looked around the room as if the furniture or maybe the drapes could help him out. Then his acute hearing tuned it to a quiet sound. She was…crying.

With a curse he went over to the bathroom. He didn't knock, just turned the knob and went inside. She was standing next to the shower, arms crossed, tears pooling her sapphire eyes.

_Oh…God_. What was a male supposed to do in this situation?

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "If I…uh, hurt your feelings or something."

She glared at him. "I'm not hurt. I'm pissed off and sexually frustrated."

His head snapped back on his spine. _Well…then. Okaaaaay._

Man, he was going to need a neck brace after this conversation.

"I'll say it again, Dimitri. If you're not into laying with me, that's okay, but do not try and tell me I don't know what I want."

D planted his palms on his hip bones and looked down at the marble tile. _Don't day anything, asshole. Just keep your mouth—_

_"_It's not that," he blurted. As the words floated out into the air, he cursed himself. Talking was bad. Talking was real piss-poor idea…

"It's not what? You mean you want me?"

He thought of the _it_ that was still trying to claw a way out of his pants. She had eyes. She could see the damn thing. "You know I do."

"So if I'm willing to take it…hard…" She paused, and he had a feeling she was blushing. "Then why can't we be together?"

His breath shortened until his lungs burned and his heart pounded. He felt as if he were looking over the edge of a ravine. Good Lord, he wasn't actually going to tell her? Was he?

His stomach rolled as the words came out. "She was always on top. The Mistress. When she…came to me, she was always on top. You, uh, you rolled over onto my chest and…yeah, that doesn't work for me."

He rubbed his face, as much to try to hide from her as to relieve the headache he suddenly had.

He heard breath being exhaled. Realized it was hers.

Dimitri, I'm so sorry. I didn't know—"

"Yeah…fuck…maybe you can forget I said that." God, he needed to get away from her before that mouth of his got flapping again. "Look, I'm going to—"

"What did she do to you?" Rose's voice was thin as a hair.

He shot her a hard look. _Oh, not likely,_ he thought.

She took a step toward him. Dimitri, did she…have you against your will?"

He turned away. "I'm going to the gym. I'll see you later."

"Wait—"

_"Later,_ Rose. I can't…do this."

On his way out, he grabbed his Nikes and his MP3 player.

A good, long run was just what he needed right now. A long…run. So what if it got him exactly nowhere. At least he could have the sweaty illusion he was getting away from himself.

~~VABDBH~~

As midnight neared, Rose put on a pair of her old blue jeans and that thick red sweater she liked so much. Then she went into the bathroom, pulled the two towels down from the mirror, and looked at herself. Her reflection was of the female she had always seen staring back at her. Brown eyes. High cheeks. Pouty lips. Lots of dark brown hair.

She lifted the edge of the sweater and peeked at her stomach. The skin was flawless, no longer bearing the _lesser's_ name. She smoothed her hand over where the letters had been.

"You ready?" Dimitri asked.

She glanced up into the mirror. He loomed behind her, dressed in black, weapons hanging off his body. His coal eyes were pegged on the skin she exposed.

"The scars have healed," She said. "In just forty-eight hours."

"Yeah. And I'm glad."

"I'm scared to go to my house."

"Adrian, and Christian are coming with us. You've got plenty of protection."

"I know…" She lowered the sweater. "It's just…what if I can't bear to go inside?"

"Then we try again another night. However long it takes." He held out her parks.

Shrugging into the thing, she said, "You have better things to do than watch over me."

"Not right now I don't. Give me you hand."

Her fingers trembled as she reached out. She had some vague thought that it was the first time he'd asked her to touch him, and she hoped the contact would lead to an embrace.

But he wasn't interested in hugging. He put a small gun in her hand without even brushing her skin.

She recoiled in distaste. "No, I—"

"Hold it like—"

"Wait a minute, I don't—"

"—this." He positioned the little butt against her palm. "Here's the safety. On. Off. Got it? On…off. You need to be in tight to kill with this, but it's loaded with two bullets that will slow a _lesser_ down long enough so you can get away. Just point and pull the trigger twice. You don't need to cock it or anything. And aim for the torso, it'll be a bigger target."

"I don't want this."

"And I don't want you to have it. But it's better than sending you in the light."

She shook her head and closed her eyes. So ugly business of life was sometimes.

"Rose? Rose look at me." When she did, he said, "Keep that in the outside pocked of your coat on the right side. You want it in your business hand if you have to use it." She opened her mouth and he talked right over her. "You're going to stay with Christian, and Adrian. And as long as you're with them, it is _extremely_ unlikely that you will need to use that."

"Where will you be?"

"Around." As he turned away, she noticed that he had a knife at the small of his back—in addition to the two daggers on his chest, and the pair of guns on his hips. She wondered how many other weapons he had on him that she couldn't see.

He stopped in the doorway, head hanging low. "I'm going to make sure you don't have to take that gun out, Rose. I promise you. But I can't have you unarmed."

She took a deep breath. And slipping the little piece of metal into coat pocked.

Out in the hall Adrian was waiting, leaning against the balcony. He was also dressed for fighting, with guns and those daggers all over him, a deadly calm radiating from his body. When she smiled at him, he nodded and drew on his black leather coat.

Dimitri's cell phone rang and he flipped it open. "You there Christian? What's doing?" When he hung up, he nodded. "Good to go."

The three of them walked down to the foyer and then out into the courtyard. In the cold air both males palmed guns, and then all of them dematerialized.

Rose took form on her front porch, facing the glossy red door with its brass knocker. She could feel Dimitri and Adrian behind her, two huge male bodies full of tension. Footsteps sounded and she looked over her shoulder. Christian was coming up onto the porch. His gun drawn too.

The idea of taking her time and easing into her house struck her as dangerous and selfish. She unlocked the door with her mind, then walked in.

The place still smelled the same…a combination of the lemon floor wax she used on the wide pine boards and the rosemary candles she liked to burn.

When she heard the door shut and the security alarm get turned off, she glanced back. Christian and Adrian were tight on her heels, but Dimitri was no where to be seen.

She knew he hadn't left them. But she wished he were inside with her.

She took a deep breath and looked around her living room. Without any lights on, she only saw familiar shadows and shapes, more the pattern of the furniture and the walls than anything else.

"Everything seems…God, exactly the same."

Although there was a blank spot over her writing desk. A mirror was gone, a mirror that she and her mother had picked out together about a decade ago. Denis had always liked it. Had he taken the thing? She wasn't sure whether to be touched or offended.

When she reached out to turn a lamp on, Christian stopped her. "No lights. Sorry."

She nodded. Walking deeper into her house, seeing more of the things, she felt as though she were among friend of long acquaintance whom she hadn't seen in years. It was delightful and sad. A relief most of all. She'd been so sure she would get upset…

She stopped when she got to the dining room. Beyond the wide archway at the far end was the kitchen. Dread coiled in her gut.

Steeling herself, she walked into the other space and halted. As she saw everything so neat and unbroken, she remembered the violence that had taken place.

"Someone's cleaned it up," she whispered.

"Dimitri." Christian stepped by her, gun up at chest level, eyes scanning around.

"He…did all this?" She motioned her hand in a sweep.

"The night after you were taken. He spent hours here. Downstairs is neat as a pin, too."

She tried to imagine Dimitri with a mop and bucket, getting rid of the bloodstains and the glass shards.

_Why?_ She wondered.

Christian shrugged. "He said it was personal."

Had she spoken out loud? "Did he explain…why that was?"

As the male shook his head, she was aware of Adrian pointedly taking interest in the outdoors.

"You want to go to your bedroom?" Christian asked.

When she nodded, Adrian said, "I'm staying up here."

Down in the basement she found everything in order, arranged…clean. She opened her closet, went through her dresser drawers, wandered around her bathroom. Small things captivated her. A bottle of perfume. A magazine dated from before the abduction. A candle she could remember lighting next to the claw-foot tub.

Lingering, touching, sliding back into place in some profound way, she wanted to spend hours…days. But she could feel Christian's increasing strain.

"I think I've seen enough for tonight," She said, wishing she could stay longer.

Christian went first as they headed back to the first floor. When he came into the kitchen, he looked at Adrian. "She's ready to head out."

Adrian flipped open his phone. There was a pause. "D, time to go. Start the car for Christian."

As Christian shut the cellar door, Rose went over to her fish tank and peered in. she wondered if she would ever live at the house again. And had a feeling she wouldn't/

"Do you want to take anything with you?" Christian asked.

"No, I think—"

A gunshot rang outside, the hollow popping noise muffled.

Christian grabbed her and hauled her back against his body. "Stay quiet," he said in her ear.

"Out front," Adrian hissed as he fell into a crouch. He pointed his gun down the hall at the door they'd come in through.

Another gunshot. And another. Getting closer. Coming around the house.

"We're out the tunnel," Christian whispered as her muscled her around and pushed her toward the basement door.

Adrian tracked the sounds with his gun muzzle. "I got you back."

Just as Christian's hand fell on the cellar door's knob, time compressed into fractals of seconds, then collapsed into nonsense.

The French door behind them smashed open, the wood frame splintering, the glass shattering.

Dimitri took the whole thing out with his back as he was pushed through the thing by some tremendous force. As he landed on the kitchen floor, his skull jacked back and hit the tile so hard it sounded like another gun shot. Then with a horrible yell, the _lesser_ that had thrown him through the door leaped on his chest and the two of them slid across the room, heading right for the cellar stairs.

Dimitri was rock-still under the slayer. Dazed? Dead?

Rose screamed as Christian yanked her out of the way. The only place to go was against the stove, and he shoved her in that direction, shielding her with his body. Only new they were trapped in the kitchen.

Adrian, and Christian both leveled guns at the tangle of arms and legs on the floor, but the slayer didn't care. The undead lifted his fist and punched Dimitri in the head.

"No!" She roared.

Except, strangely, the hit seemed to wake Dimitri up. Or maybe her voice had done the trick. His black eyes flipped open and an evil expression came over his face. With a quick thrust he clamped his hands under the _lesser's_ armpits and twisted so hard, the slayer's torso contorted into a vicious arch.

In a flash Dimitri was on top, straddling the _lesser_. He grabbed hold of the slayer's right arm and stretched it into a bone-cracking bad angle. Then he jammed his thumb under the undead's chin so far you couldn't see half the finger and bared deadly long fangs that glistened white and deadly. He bit the _lesser_ in the neck, right through the esophageal column.

The slayer hollered in pain, thrashing widly between his legs. And that was only the beginning. Dimitri tore his prey apart. When the thing no longer moved, he paused while panting and pushed his fingers into the _lesser's_ dark hair, splitting a section wide, clearly looking for white roots.

But she could have told him it wasn't Nathan. Assuming she could find her voice.

Dimitri cursed and caught his breath, but stayed crouched over his kill, looking for signs of life. As if he wanted to keep going.

And then he frowned and glanced up, clearly realizing the battle was over and there had been witnesses.

_Oh…Jesus_. His face was marked with the black blood of the _lesser,_ and more of the stain covered his chest and hands.

His black eyes shifted to hers. They were bright. Shiny. Just like the blood he'd spilled to defend her. And he quickly looked away, as if he wanted to hide the satisfaction he'd gotten from the kill.

"The other two are finished," he said, still breathing hard. He pulled out the bottom of his shirt and wiped his face.

Adrian headed for the hallway. "Where are they? Front lawn?"

"Try the Omega's front door. I stabbed them both." Dimitri looked at Christian. "Take her home. Now. She's too chocked out to dematerialize. And Adrian, you go with them. I want a call the moment she puts a foot in the foyer, we clear?"

"What about you?" Christian asked, even as he was moving her around the dead _lesser_.

Dimitri stood up and unsheathed a dagger. "I'll poof this one and wait for others to come. When these fuckers don't check in, there'll be more."

"We'll be back."

"I don't care what you do as long as you get her home. So quit talking and start driving."

Rose reached out to him, though she wasn't sure why. She was horrified by what he had done and by what he looked like now, all bruised and beaten, his own blood running down his clothes along with the slayers'.

Dimitri slashed a hand though the air dismissing her. "Get her the hell out of here."


	12. Chapter 12

Ok guys I am sorry for not updating like I used too. I kind of got a little upset when I received the review about this story, and most of you know which review it is. I know that it was not your fault and I shouldn't hold that against you guys and not review, but I guess in a way I just didn't want to write a story that not to everyones liking, but then I thought about everyone of you guys that liked it with mistakes and all and figured I needed to update and keep going until this story ended.

So give me a few hours and I should have a post up!

Thank you guys for stcking with me through this!


	13. Chapter 13

**Ok guys I would love to thank all of you for your support. Honestly without it I probably wouldn't be writing this story any longer. But I really want you guys to know how it ends! **

**So with that being said, I am writing the next chapter as we speak, or well more like as you guys read!**

Chapter Twelve

Dimitri found the black Ford Explorer parked in the woods about three hundred yards away from the entrance to Rose's mile-long driveway. The only reason he'd run across the thing was because he'd been scouring the area, to restless to go home, too dangerous to be in the company of anyone else.

A set of footprints in the snow headed in the direction of the farmhouse.

He cupped his hands and looked in the car's windows. The security alarm was engaged.

Had to be those _lesser's_ ride. He could smell the sweet scent of them all over it. But with only one set of tracks, maybe the driver had dropped his buddies off, then hidden it? Or maybe the SUV had had to be moved from somewhere else?

Whatever. The society would be back for its property. And wouldn't it be sweet to know where the hell it ended up? But how could he trail the damn thing?

He put his hands on his hips…and happened to look down at his gun belt.

As he unclipped his cell phone, he thought fondly of Christian, he could do anything on a computer.

_Necessity, mother, invention._

He dematerialized under the SUV so he left a minimal amount of tracks in the snow. As his weight was absorbed by his back, he winced. Man, he was going to pay for that little trip through the French door. And for the knock on the head. But he'd survived worse.

He took out a penlight and looked around the undercarriage, trying to pick the right spot. He needed somewhere fairly large, and it couldn't be near the exhaust system, because even in this cold, that kind of heat could be a problem. Of course, he'd have much preferred to get into the Explorer and tuck the phone under a seat, but the SUV's alarm system was a complication. If it were tripped he might not be able to reengage it, so the _lessers_ would know someone had been in the car.

As if the punched-out window wouldn't be a clue.

_Damn it…_ He should have gone through those _lessers_ pockets before stabbing them into oblivion. One of those bastards had had the keys. Except he'd been so pissed off, he'd moved too fast.

D cursed, thinking of the way Rose had looked at him after he'd chewed up that slyer in front of her. Her eyes had been wide in her pale face, her mouth loose with shock at what he'd done.

The thing was the Brotherhood's business of protecting the race was a nasty one. It was messy and ugly and sometimes deranged. Always bloody. And on top of all that, she had seen the killing lust in him. Somehow, he was willing to bet that was what disturbed her the most.

_Focus, dumb ass. Come on, get out of your head._

D poked around some more, shifting under the Explorer. Finally he found what he was looking for: a little cave in the undercarriage. He shrugged out of his windbreaker, wrapped the phone up, and shoved the thing in the hole. He tested the jury-rig to make sure it was in the good and tight, then dematerialized out from under the SUV.

He knew the setup wasn't going to last long under there, but it was so much better than nothing. And now Adrian would be able to track the Explorer from home, because that little silver-bullet Nokia had a GPS chip in it.

D flashed over to the edge of the meadow so he could see the back of the farmhouse. He'd done an okay patch job on the busted kitchen door. Fortunately the frame of the thing had still been intact, so he'd been able to close it and reengage the alarm sensors. Then he'd found a plastic tarp in the garage and covered up the monster hole.

Fixed, but not really.

Funny…he didn't think he'd be any more successful if he tried to rehab Rose's opinion of him. But—_damn it_—he didn't want to be a savage to her.

In the distance, two headlights turned off the road and shined down the long private lane. The car slowed as it came up to Rose's house, then pulled into her driveway.

Was that a Bentley? D thought. Sure looked like it.

_Man, an expensive car like that?_ Had to be a member of Rose's family. No doubt they'd been notified that the security alarm had been off for a while and then been turned back on about ten minutes ago.

_Shit_. Now was not a good time for someone to do a look-see walk-through. Given D's luck, the _lessers _would pick right this moment to come back for their SUV—and decide to do a drive-by of the house for kicks and giggles.

Cursing under his breath, he waited for one of the Bentley's doors to open…except no one got out of the car and the engine stayed idling. This was good. As long as the alarm was activated, maybe they wouldn't thing to go inside. Because the kitchen was a mess.

D sniffed the cold air, but couldn't catch a scent. Instinct told him, though, that it was a male inside the sedan. Her brother? Most likely. He'd be the one who'd check out the scene.

_That's right, buddy. Look at the front windows. See? Nothing's wrong. No one's in the house. Now to us both a favor and get the hell out of here._

The sedan stayed put for what seemed like five hours. Then it back out, did a K-turn in the street and took off.

D grabbed a deep breath of air. _Christ…_ His nerves were took off.

Time passed. As he stood along amount the pines, he stared at Rose's house. And wondered if she'd be scared of him now.

The wind picked up, the cold getting rough with him and bleeding into him bones. With desperation, he embraced the pain that came with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~VABDBH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rose spent the hours after she returned to the mansion sitting up in Dimitri's bed with her diary in her lap. She didn't do anything with the journal at first, too caught up in what had happened at her house.

_Jesus…_She couldn't say she was surprised that Dimitri was every bit the menace she'd though he was. And he'd saved her, hadn't he? If that _lesser_ he'd killed had gotten it's hand on her, she would have ended up back in a hole in the ground.

The trouble was, she couldn't decide whether what he'd done was evidence of his strength or his brutality.

As she decided it was probably both, she worried about whether he was okay. He'd been hurt and yet he was still out there, probably trying to find more slayers. _God…What it he-_

_What if. What if…_She was going to drive herself crazy if she kept this up. Desperate for something else to focus on, she leafed through what she'd written in her journal over the past year. Dimitri's name had played a prominent role in the entries right before she'd been abducted. She'd been so obsessed by him, and couldn't say that had changed. Matter of fact, her feelings were so strong for him now, even after what he'd done tonight, that she wondered if she didn't…

Love him. Oh…man.

Suddenly she couldn't be alone, not with that realization shooting around her head. She brushed her teeth and her hair and made a go for the first floor, hoping she'd run into someone. Except halfway down the stairs, she heard voices from the dining room and came to a halt. The last meal of the night was in progress, but the idea of joining all the Brothers and Lissa, and Abe's female, the queen, seemed overwhelming. Besides, wouldn't Dimitri be there? And how cold she face him without giving herself away? No way that male was going to deal well with her loving him. No way.

_Ah, hell_. She was going to have to see him sooner or later. And hiding wasn't her thing.

But when she got the bottom of the staircase and stepped off onto the foyers mosaic floor, she realized she'd forgotten to put any shoes on. How could she go into the king and queen's dining room with bare feet?

She looked back up at the second floor and became utterly exhausted. Too tired to go up and come down again, too embarrassed to go forward, she just listened to the sounds of the meal: Male and female voiced chattered and laughed. A wine bottle was uncorked with a pop. Someone thanked Daniel for bringing out more lamb.

She looked down at her naked feet, thinking she was such a fool. A shattered fool. She was lost because of what that _lesser_ had done to her. And shaky because of what she'd seen Dimitri do tonight. And so alone after realizing what she felt for that male.

She was about to throw the towel in and go back upstairs when something brushed against her leg. She jumped and looked down, meeting the jade green eyes of a black cat. The feline blinked, purred at her, and rubbed its head against the skin of her ankle.

Bending at the waist, she stroked its fur with unsteady hands. The animal was incomparably elegant, all lean lines and graceful, sliding movements. And for no good reason, her eyes got blurry. The more emotional she got, the closer she and the cat became, until she was sitting on the last step of the staircase and the animal had crawled into her lap.

"His name is Boo."

Rose gasp and looked up. Adrian was standing in front of her, a towering male no longer dressed in war clothes, but now in cashmere and wool. He had a napkin in his hand, as if he'd just gotten up from the table, and he smelled really good, like he'd recently taken a shower and shaved. Staring at him, she became aware that all the talk and sounds of eating had bled from the air, leaving a silence that told her everyone knew she'd come downstairs and gotten stuck on the periphery.

Adrian knelt down and pressed his linen napkin into her hand. Which was how she realized there were tears running down her cheeks.

"Won't you come join us?" He said softly.

She blotted her face while still holding on to the cat. "Any chance I can take him in with me?"

"Absolutely. Boo is always welcome at our table. And so are you."

"I don't have shoes on."

"We don't care." He held out his hand. "Come on, Rose. Come join us."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`VABDBH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dimitri walked into the foyer, so cold and stiff he shuffled along. He'd wanted to stay until the very dawn at the house, but his body hadn't fared well in the frigid air.

Even though he wasn't going to eat, he headed for the dining room, only to stop in the shadows. Rose was at the table, sitting next to Adrian. There was a plate of food in front of her, but she was paying more attention to the cat in her lap. She was petting Boo, and didn't miss a stroke as she look up at something Adrian had said. She smiled, and when her head dropped again, Adrian's eyes stayed on her profile as if he were drinking her in.

D walked quickly over to the stairs, not about to fall into that jealous crap. No way. Not him, there was nothing he should feel jealous for.

He almost made it to the stairs when Eddie emerged from the hidden door below the first landing. The brother looked grim, but then he never was a party.

"Hey, D, hold up."

Dimitri cursed, and not under his breath. He had no interest in getting waylaid by some policy-and-procedures shit and that was all Eddie talked about lately. The guy was cracking down on the Brotherhood, organizing shifts, trying to turn four loose cannons like, D, Adrian Christian, and a brother they rarely saw, Mason, into soldiers. No wonder he always looked like his head hurt.

"Dimitri, I said, _wait._"

"Not now—"

"Yeah, _now._ Rose's brother sent a request to Abe. Asking that she be assigned _sehculsion_ status with him as her _whard_."

_Oh shit._ If that happened, Rose was as good as gone. Hell, she was as good as luggage. Not even the Brotherhood could keep her from her _whard_.

"D? Did you hear what I said?"

_Nod you head, asshole,_ he told himself.

He barely managed a chin dip. "But why are you telling me this?"

Eddie's mouth tightened. "You want to front like she's nothing to you? Fine. Just thought you'd want to know."

Eddie headed for the dining room.

D gripped the banister and rubbed his chest, feeling like someone had replaced the oxygen in his lungs with tar. He looked up the stairs and wondered if Rose would come back to his room before she left. She would to, because her diary was there. She could leave her clothes behind, but not that journal. Unless, of course, she'd moved out already.

_God…_ how would he tell her good-bye?

Man, there was one conversation to bail on. He couldn't imagine what he'd say to her, especially after she'd seen him do his nasty magic all over that slayer.

D went into the library, picked up one of the phones there, and dialed Christians cell number by its pattern on the buttons. He heard the ring through the receiver as well as from across the foyer. When Christian answered, he told the Brother about the Explorer and the cell phone and the undercarriage antics.

"I'm on it," C said. "But where are you? There's a funky echo on the phone."

"Call me if that car moves. I'll be in the gym." He hung up and headed for the underground tunnel.

He figured he could scrounge up some clothes down in the locker room and run himself into a state of utter depletion. When his thighs were screaming and his calves had turned to stone and his throat sore from the gasping, the pain would clear his mind, cleanse him…He craved the hurt more than he craved food.

When he got to the locker room, he went to the cubicle assigned to him and pulled out his Air Shox and a pair of running shorts. He preferred going shirtless anyway, especially if he was alone.

He'd disarmed and was about to strip down when he heard something moving around the lockers. Tracking the sound in silence, he stepped out into the path of—a half-pint stranger.

There was a metal bang as that little body slammed into one of the locker banks.

Shit. It was a kid that Eddie, and Mia had pretty much adopted, and now was in the training program for the pretrans to hunt _lessers_ after their transitions. Something that D had no interest in helping with, not that anyone would have asked him to do anyway. They were afraid he would slit a kids throat for saying, or moving the wrong way.

Damned what was the kids name? James something. And James looked as if he was going to faint as he stared up with bugged-out, glassy eyes.

D glared down from his full height. His mood was utterly vicious at the moment, black and cold as space, and yet somehow, ripping the kid a new asshole for doing nothing wrong wasn't appealing.

"Get out of here, kid."

James fumbled with something. A pad and pen. That was right the kid couldn't talk. Was born without a voice box. Man D wished more people were born that way. That way he wouldn't have to listen to the pointless talk.

"Yeah I don't read, remember? Look, just go. Eddie's up at the house."

D turned away and yanked off his shirt. When he heard a gasp, he looked over his shoulder. James eyes were on his back.

"Christ kid…get the hell out of here."

As D heard the patter of feet leaving, he ditched his pants, threw on the black soccer shorts, and say on the bench. He picked his Nikes up by the laces and let them dangle between his knees. As he stared at the running shoes, he had some stupid though about how many times he'd shoved his feet into them and punished his body on the very treadmill he was headed for. Then he thought about how many timed he'd deliberately gotten himself hurt in fights with the _lessers. _And how many times he'd asked Adrian to beat him.

No, not asked. Demanded. There had been times when he'd demanded that his twin hit him over and over again until his scarred face swelled up and the pounding ache in his bones was all he knew. In truth, he didn't like having Adrian involved. He'd have preferred the pain to be

Private and would have done the damage himself if he'd been able to. But it was hard to coldcock yourself with any force.

D lowered the running shoes to the floor and leaned back against the locker, thinking about where his twin was. Up in the dining room. Next to Rose.

His eyes drifted to the phone that was mounted on the locker room wall. Maybe he should call up to the house.

A low whistle sounded right next to him. he flipped his eyes to the left and frowned.

The kid was there with a water bottle in his hand, and he forward tentatively, his arm stretched way out in front of him, his head tilted away. Kind of like he was cozying up to a panther and hoped to leave the experience with his limbs still attached.

James placed the bottle about three feet from D on the bench. Then he turned and ran away.

D stared at the door the kid tore out of. As the thing eased shut, he thought about other doors in the compound. The front ones of the mansions, specifically.

_God_. Rose would be leaving soon, too. She might even be leaving now.

Right this very minute.


	14. Chapter 14

OK, for those of you who really do like this story I'm glad! For those of you who don't, then please don't read it. I never said that this was _my_ story. Yes this story is the Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 3. I thought for those who didn't have the means to read the BDBH or just haven't had the chance to read them, this would be a good story maybe to entice you to read the books. But apparently no one can get past the point that this is copied from the book itself. I never _once_ said that these were my ideas, or that I came up with this stroy on my own. If I remember correctly the only thing I said was I hope that you enjoy this story.

So for those who really want to know how this story ends, I will continue to rewrite the words. If no one wants to read it since it is written by someone else please let me know!


	15. Chapter 15

_**Alright guys for those of you who are still reading this story here is the next chapter! I think you'll like this one but I know you'll like the next one even more. Chapter fourteen will be rated M. So if you don't like that kind of thing then wait for chapter fifteen!**_

_**Thank you guys for enticing me to keep writing this story, or well copying, lol. But seriously thank you guys!**_

Chapter Thirteen

As Rose left Abe's study she was shaking with rage, and neither the king nor Eddie tried to stop her or talk sense into her. Which proved they were highly intelligent males.

She pounded down the hall in her bare feet to Dimitri's room, and after she slammed the door shut, she went for the phone as if the thing were a weapon. She dialed her brother's cell.

Denis picked up and snapped, "Who are you and how did you get this number?"

"Don't you dare do this to me."

There was a long silence. Then: "Rose…I—hold on a second." A shuffling sound came through the phone; then he said in a cutting voice, "He'd better get over here right now. We clear? If I have to go after him, he'd not going to like it." Denise cleared his throat as he came back on. "Rose, where are you? Let me come pick you up. Or have one of the warriors take you to our house and I'll meet you there."

"You ting I'm coming _anywhere_ near you now?"

"It's better than the alternative," he said grimly.

"And what's that?"

"The Brothers forcibly retuning you to me."

"Why are you doing—"

_"Why am I doing this?" _His voice sand into the deep, demanding bass she was so used to. "Do you have any idea what the last six weeks have been like for me? Knowing that you were in the hands of those damned things? Knowing that I put my sister…my mother's daughter…in that place?"

"It was not your fault—"

"You should have been home!"

As always, the sandblast of Denise's fury shook her, and was reminding that on some basic level her bother had always scared her a little.

But then she heard him take a deep breath. And another. Then a curious desperation crept into his words. "Christ, Rose…just come home. _Mahmen_ and I, we need you here. We miss you. We…I need to see you to believe you're really okay."

_Ah, yes_…Now the other side of him, the one she actually loved. The protector. The provider. The tenderhearted, gruff male who had always given her everything she had ever needed.

The temptation to submit to him was strong. But then she pictured herself never being allowed out of the house again. Which was something he was damn well capable of doing to her.

"Will you rescind the _sehclusion_ request?"

"We'll talk about it when you're sleeping in your own bed again."

Rose gripped the phone. "That means no, doesn't it?" there was a pause. "Hello? Denis?"

"I just want you home."

"Yes or no, Den. Tell me now."

"Our mother can't live through something like this again."

"And you think I can?" She shot back. "Excuse me, but _mahmen_ wasn't the one who ended up with a _lesser's_ name carved into her stomach!"

The instant the words left her mouth, she cursed. Yeah, that kind of happy little detail was _really_ going to bring him around. _Way to negotiate._

"Denise—"

His voice went utterly cold. "I want you home."

"I've just been in captivity, I'm not volunteering for jail."

"And just what are you going to do about it?"

"Keep pushing me around and you'll find out."

She ended the call and slammed the cordless unit down on the bedside table. _Damned him_.

On a crazy impulse, she grabbed the receiver and spun around, ready to hurl it across the room.

"Dimitri!" She fumbled with the phone, catching it, holding it against her chest.

Standing silently next to the door, Dimitri was wearing running shorts and no shirt…and for some absurd reason she noticed that he didn't have shoes on either.

"Throw it if you want," he said.

"No. I…ah…no." She turned away and put the thing back on its little stand, taking twi tried to get it in right.

Before she faced Dimitri again, she thought of him crouched over the _lesser_, beating it to death…But then she remembered him bringing her things from her house…and taking her there…and letting her have his vein though he'd cracked wide-open at the invasion. As she pivoted around toward him, she was tangled in the net of him, caught between the kindness and the cruelty.

He broke the silence. "I don't want you running half-cocked into the night because of what your brother's up to. And don't tell me that isn't what you're thinking."

Damn he was smart. "But you know what he wants to do to me."

"Yeah."

"And by law the Brotherhood will have to give me up, so I can't stay here. You think I like the only option I've got?"

Except where would she go?

"What's so bad about heading home?"

She glared at him. "yeah, I really want to be treated like an incompetent, like a child, like…an object my brother owns. That works for me. Totally."

Dimitri ran a hand through his hair. The movement flexed his biceps so they squeezed up thick. "Makes sense to get families under one roof. It's a dangerous time for civilians."

_Oh, man_… The last thing she needed right now was him agreeing with her brother.

"Dangerous time for _lessers, _too." She muttered. "Going by what you did to that one tonight."

Dimitri's eyes narrowed. "If you want me to apologize for that, I won't."

"Of course you wouldn't," she snapped. "You don't apologize for anything."

He shook his head slowly. "You want to pick a fight with someone you're talking to the wrong male, Rose. I won't go there with you."

"Why not? You excel at being pissed off."

The silence that followed made her want to scream at him. she was going after his anger, something he gave freely to all comers, and she couldn't figure out why the hell he was showing self-control when it came to her.

He cocked an eyebrow, as if he knew what she was thinking.

"Ah, hell," she breathed. "I'm just needling you, aren't I? Sorry."

He shrugged. "Rock and a hard place makes anyone crazy. Don't sweat it."

She sat down on the bed. The idea of running off alone was ludicrous, but she refused to live under Denise's control.

"You got any suggestions?" She asked softly. When she raised her eyes, Dimitri was looking at the floor.

He was so self-contained leaning back against the wall like that. with his long, lean body, he looked like a fresh colored crack in the plaster, a fissure that had opened up in the very structure of the room.

"Give me five minutes." He said. He walked out, still shirtless, and shoeless.

Rose let herself fall back on the mattress, thinking that five minutes wasn't going to help the situation. What she needed was a different brother waiting for her at home.

Getting away from the _lessers _should have made things better. Instead, her life still seemed totally out of her control.

Granted, she could pick her own shampoo now, though.

She lifted her head. through the bathroom door she saw the shower and imagined herself stander under a rush of hot water. That would be good. Relaxing. Refreshing. Plus she could cry out her frustration without embarrassment there.

She got up, went into the bath, and cranked on the water. The sound of the rush hitting the marble was soothing, and so was the warm spray as she got under it. She didn't end up crying. Just hung her head and let the water run down her body.

When she finally stepped out, she noticed that the door to the bedroom had been shut.

Dimitri was probably back.

Wrapping a towel around herself, she had no hope whatsoever that he'd found a solution.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BDBHVA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the bathroom door opened, D looked over and kept his curse to himself. Rose was rosy from head to foot, and her hair knotted up high on her head. She smelled like that fancy Frensh soap Daniel insisted on buying. And that towel wrapped around her body just made him thing how easy it would be to get her totally naked.

One pull. That was all he'd need.

"Abe's agreed to be temporarily unreachable," he said. "Which is only a delay of forty-eight hours or so. Talk to your brother. See if you can bring him around. Otherwise Abe had to respond, and he can't really say no, given your bloodline."

Rose hitched the towel up a little higher. "Okay…thank you. Thank you for making the effort."

He nodded and eyed the door, thinking it was back to plan A: running himself into the ground. Either that or having Adrian go at him.

Except instead of leaving, he put his hands on his hips. "I am sorry for something."

"What? Oh…Why?"

"I'm sorry that you had to see what I did to that slayer." He lifted his hand, then dropped it, resisting the urge to run his hand through his hair. "When I said I won't apologize for it, I meant I never regret killing those bastards. But I didn't…I don't like you having those images in you head. I'd take them from you if I could. I'd take all this from you…bear it all for you. I'm so…fucking sorry this happened to you, Rose. Yeah, I'm just sorry about this whole thing, including…me."

This was his good-bye to her, he realized. And he was running out of steam, so he hurried his last words.

"You're a female of worth." He hung his head. "And I know that you'll find…"

_A mate,_ he finished to himself. Yeah, a female like her would most certainly find a mate. In fact, there was one in this very house who not only wanted her, but was right for her. Adrian was just around the corner, as a matter of fact.

D looked up, intending to beat feet out of the room—and jerked back against the door.

Rose was right in front of him. as he caught her scent up close, his heart went all jackrabbit like, doing some kind of flutter thing that hot him light-headed.

"Is it true you cleaned up my house?" she said.

_Oh, man…_ The only answer he had to that was too revealing.

"Is it?"

"Yeah, I did that."

"I'm going to hug you now."

D stiffened, but before he could get himself out of the way, her arms wrapped around his wiast and he head came up against his bare chest.

He stood in her embrace without moving or returning it…All he could do was feel her body. She was a short female, and he had a good foot on her. And even though he was thin for a warrior, he carried at least seventy pound more on his bones than she did. And still she overwhelmed him.

God, she smelled good.

She made a little noise, like a sigh, and burrowed into his body even more. Her breasts pressed against his torso, and as he looked down, the curve of her nape was too damn tempting. Then there was the _it_ problem. That godforsaken thing was hardening, swelling, Lengthening. Fast.

He put his hands up to her shoulders, hovering just above her skin. "Yeah, ah, Rose…I've got to go."

"Why?" Close. She came closer. Her hips moved against his, and he gritted his teeth as their lower bodies made full contact.

Shit, she had to be feeling that thing between his legs. How could she miss it? The stiff was pushing into her belly, and it wasn't like the flipping shorts could hide the bastard.

"Why do you have to go?" she whispered, her breath brushing over his pecs.

"Because…"

When he let the word drift, she murmured, "You know, I like these."

"Like what?"

She touched one of his nipple rings. "These."

"He coughed a little, "I, ah…I did them myself."

"They're beautiful on you." She stepped back and dropped the towel.

D swayed. She was so damned beautiful, those breasts and that flat stomach and those hips…and that graceful little slit between her legs that he saw with shattering clarity. The few humns he'd been with had had hair there, but she was of his kind, so she was utterly bare, achingly smooth.

"I really have to go," he said hoarsely.

"Don't run."

"I have to. If I stay…"

"Lay with me," she said, easing up against him once more. She pulled the tie in her hair out, and dark waves spilled all over both of them.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, trying not to get buried by her scent. In a gritty voice he said, "Do you just want to get fucked, Rose? Because that's all I've got in me."

"You have so much more—"

"I do not."

"You've been kind to me. you've taken care of me. you've washed me and held me—"

"You don't want me inside of you."

"You already are, Dimitri. You blood is in me."

There was a long silence. "Do you know my reputation?"

She frowned. "That's not relevant—"

"What do people say about me, Rose? Come on, I want to hear it from you. So I know you get it." Her despair was palpable as he pushed her, but he had to snap her out of whatever daze she was in.

"I know you must have heard about me. Gossip reaches even your social level. _What do the say?"_

"Some…some think you kill the females for sport. But I don't believe—"

"Do you know how I got that rep?"

Rose covered her breasts and stepped back, shaking her head. he bent down and handed her the towel, then pointed to the skull in the corner.

"I murdered that female. Now tell me, do you want to be taken by a male who could do something like that?

"Who could hurt a female like that? You want that kind of bastard on top of you, pumping into your body?"

"It was her," Rose whispered. "You went back and killed your mistress, didn't you?"

D shuddered. "For a while I thought it could make me whole."

"It didn't."

"No shit." He brushed by her and walked around, pressure building in him until he opened his mouth and the words just shot out. "A couple of years after I got out, I heard she…shit, I heard she had another male in that cell. I…I traveled for two days straight and snuck in close to dawn." D shook his head. He didn't want to talk, he really didn't, but his mouth just kept moving. "Christ…he was so young, so _young,_ just like I was when she got me. And I didn't have any intention of killing her, but she came down right as I was leaving with the slave. When I looked at her…I knew if I didn't strike, she was going to call for her guards. I also knew that eventually she would take another male and chain him down there and make him…Ah, fuck. Why the hell am I telling you this?"

"I love you."

Dimitri squeezed his eyes shut. Don't be a tragedy, Rose."

He left the room in a rush, but couldn't go more than fifteen feet down the hall.

She loved him. _She love him?_

_Bullshit._ She _thought_ she loved him. and as soon as she got back to the real world, she was going to realize that. Christ, she'd come out of a horrific situation and was living in a bubble here at the compound. None of this was her life, and she was spending too much time with him.

And yet…God, he wanted to be with her. Wanted to lie side by side and kiss her. Wanted to do even more than that. wanted…to do it all to her, the kissing and the touching and the sucking and the licking. But where exactly did he thing all that was going to lead to? Even if he could get past the idea of penetrating her for sex, he didn't want to risk coming inside of her.

Not that he'd ever done that with any female. Hell, he'd never ejaculated under any circumstances. When he'd been a blood slave, it wasn't as if he'd ever been sexually excited. And afterward, when he was with those few whored he'd bought and fucked, he hadn't been after an orgasm. Those anonymous interludes were just experiments to see whether sex was as bad as it always had been for him.

As for masturbating, he couldn't stand touching the damn thing to take a piss, much less when it stood up for attention. And he'd never wanted to relieve himself, never been all that aroused, even when the _it_ was hard.

Man, he was so whacked with the sex shit. Like there was a short in his brain.

Actually, he had a lot of them, didn't he?

He thought about all the holes in him, the blank places, the voids where others felt things. When it came down to it, he was really just a screen, more empty than solid, his emotions blowing through him, only the anger catching and holding.

Except that wasn't entirely true, was it? Rose made him feel things. When she had kissed him on the bed before, she had made him feel…hot and hungry. Very male. Sexual, for the first time in his life.

From out of a sharp desperation, some echo of what he'd been before the Mistress had had him started looking for airtime. He found himself wanting again that feeling he'd gotten from kissing Rose. And he wanted to crank her up, too. He wanted her gasping and breathless and starved.

It wasn't for to her…but he was a son of a bitch, and he was greedy for what she'd given him before. And she could be leaving soon. He had this one day.

Dimitri opened the door and went back inside.

Rose was lying in bed and obviously surprised he was back. As she sat up, the sight of her brought back a lick of decency. How the hell could he be with her? God, she was so…beautiful, and he was nasty, a nasty bastard.

His momentum lost, he stalled in the middle of the room. _Prove you're not a bastard by bailing,_ he though. _But explain yourself first._

"I want to be with you, Rose, and not to fuck you either." As she started to say something, he silenced her by holding up his hand. "Please, just listen to me. I want to be with you, but I don't/ think I've got it in me to give you what you need. I'm not the right male for you, and this is definitely the wrong time."

He released his breath, thinking he was such an asshole. Here he was telling her no, playing the gentleman…while in his mind he was yanking back those sheets and replacing them with a blanket of his own skin.

The thing hanging from the front of his hips pounded like jackhammer.

What would she taste like, he wondered, in that soft, sweet place between her legs?

"Come over here, Dimitri." She opened the covers, baring herself to him. "Stop thinking. Come to bed."

"I…" Words he'd never spoken to anyone hovered on his lips, a confession of sorts, a treacherous unveiling. He looked away and then let them go for no good reason he could think of. "Roe, when I was a slave thing were…ah, things were done to me. Sexual shit." He should stop. Right now. "There were males, Rose. Against my will, there were males."

He heard a little gasping sound.

This was good, he thought, even as he cringed. Maybe he could get her to save herself by revolting her. Because what female could stand being with a male who'd had that kind of thing done to him? Not the heroic ideal. Not a long shot.

He cleared his throat and stared a hold right through the floor. "Look, I'm not…I don't want your pity. The reason I'm telling you this is not to sap you out. It's just…I'm scrambled. It's like my wired are all crossed when it comes to the whole…you know, the fucking thing. I want you, but it's not right. You shouldn't be with me. You're cleaner than that."

There was a long silence. _Ah, shit_… He had to look at her. The moment he did, she rose form the bed as if she'd been waiting for him to lift his eyes. She walked to him naked, nothing on her skin except the candlelight from the single wick that burned.

"Kiss me," She whispered in the dimness. "Just kiss me."

"God…what is wrong with you?" As she winced, he said, "I mean, why? Of all the males you could have, why me?"

"I want you." She put her hand on his chest. "It's natural, normal response to the opposite sex, isn't it?"

"I'm not normal."

"I know. But you're not dirty or contaminated or unworthy." She took his shaking hands and placed them on her shoulders.

Her skin was so fine, the idea of marring it in anyway froze him. So did the image of him pushing the _it_ into her. Except he didn't have to involve the lower half of his body, did he? This could be all about her.

_Oh yeah, _he thought. This could be for her.

He turned her around and drew her back against his body. With slow sweeps he ran his hands up and down the curves of her waist and hips. When she arched her spine and sighed, he could see the tips of her breasts over her shoulder. He wanted to touch her there…and realized he could. He moved his hands over her rib cage, feeling up the pattern of delicate bones until his palms enveloped her breasts. Her head kicked back farther and her mouth parted.

As she opened for him like that, he had a screaming instinct to get inside of her any way he could. On reflex he licked his upper lip while he rolled on her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. He imagines himself thrusting his tongue into her mouth, going in between her teeth and fangs, taking her in that way.

Like she knew what he was thinking, she tried to turn and face him, but it seemed too close somehow…too real that she was giving herself to him, that she was going to let someone like him do intimate, erotic things to her body. He stopped her by grabbing her hips and pulling her hard into his thighs. He ground his teeth at the feel of her ass against that stiff thing straining his shorts.

"Dimitri…let me kiss you." She tried to turn around again and he stopped her.

As she struggled in his hold, he kept her in place easily. "It'll be better for you this way. If you can't see me, it'll be better."

"No it won't"

He put his head down on her shoulder. "If I could just get Adrian for you…I used to look like him once. You could pretend it's me."

She yanked her body free of his hands. "But it wouldn't be. And it's you I want."

As she looked at him with feminine expectation, he realized they were headed for the bed right behind her. And they were going to get down to it. But, God…he had no idea how to make her feel good. He might as well have been a virgin for all the shit he knew about pleasuring a female.

With that happy little revelation, he thought about the other male she'd had, that aristocrat who undoubtedly knew so much more about sex than he did. From out of nowhere, he was struck by a totally irrational urge to hunt down her previous lover and bleed him out.

_Oh…hell._ He closed his eyes. _Oh…shit._

"What?" She asked.

This kind of violent, territorial impulse was characteristic of a bonded male. The hallmark of one, actually.

D lifted his arm, put his nose to his bicep, and breathed in deep…the bonding scent was coming out of his skin. It was faint, probably only recognizable to him, but it was there.

Shit. Now what was he going to do?

Unfortunately, his instincts answered. As his body roared, he picked her up and headed for the bed.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ok guys this chapter is rated M so if you don't like that sort of thing than please don't read! I would like to say I'm sorry for not updating lately. I could set here and make a hundred excuses but none of you care what they are, so I'm just going to say sorry. **

**ONCE AGAIN THE PLOT IS BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD, AND THE CHARACTERS ARE VAMPIRE ACADEMY. I OWN NOTHING HERE.**

**Thank you guys for your reviews! Keep it up!**

Chapter Fourteen

Rose stared at Dimitri's face while he carried her across the room. His black eyes were narrowed into slits, a dark erotic greed glittering in them. As he put her on the bed and looked down at her body, she had the distinct thought that he was going to eat her alive.

Except he just loomed over her.

"Arch your back for me," he demanded.

Okay…not what she expected.

"Arch your back, Roza."

Feeling oddly exposed, she did as he asked, craning her body off the mattress. As she moved on the bed, she glanced at the front of his shorts. His erection gave a mighty jerk, and the idea that it was going to be inside of her soon helped loosen her up.

He reached down and brushed one of her nipples with his knuckle. "I want this in my mouth."

A delicious greed of her own took root. "Then kiss—"

"Shh." His knuckle traveled in between her breasts and down her stomach. He stopped when he got to her belly button. Took his forefinger and ran a little circle around her navel. Then paused.

"Don't stop." She moaned.

He didn't. he went lower until he brushed across the top of her cleft. She bit her lip and eyed his body, that huge, warrior frame with all that stark, hard muscle. _God…_ She was really getting ready for him.

"Dimitri—"

"I'm going to want to go down on you. And I won't be able to stop myself." With his free hand he rubbed his lips, as if he were imagining the act. "You prepared to let me do that?"

"Yes…"

He fingered the distorted side of his mouth as he stroked her slit. "Wish I had something better-looking to offer you. Because you're going to be perfect down there. I know it."

She hated the shame that came through his pride. "I think you're—"

"You've got one last chance to tell me no, Rose. If you don't right now, I'm going to be all over you. No stopping, and I don't think I can be gentle about it."

She held her arms out to him. He nodded once, as if they'd made some kind of pact, and then went to the end of the bed.

"Spread your legs. I want to see you."

A nervous flush came over her.

He shook his head. "Too late, Roza. Now…it's too late. Show me."

Slowly she cocked one of her knees up and gradually revealed herself.

His face melted, the tension and the harshness bleeding out of him. "Oh…God…" He whispered. "You're beautiful."

Leaning down onto his arms, he prowled up the bed to her body, his eyes fixated on her secret skin as if he'd never seen anything like it. When he got in range, wide hands smoothed their way up the insides of her thighs, opening then even farther.

But then he frowned and looked up at her. "Wait, I'm suppose to kiss you on the mouth first, aren't I? I mean, males start at the top and work their way down, don't they?"

What an odd question…like he'd never done this at all?

Before she could reply he began to move back, so she say up and captured his face in her hands.

"You can do whatever you like to me."

His eyes flashed and he held his position for a split second.

Then he lunged at her, taking her down onto the bed. His tongue shot into her mouth and his hands tangled in her hair, pulling on her, arching her, trapping her head. the hunger in his was ferocious, a warrior's thick-blooded need for sex. He was going to take her with all the strength he had, and she was going to be sore when he was through using her. Sore and utterly blessed out. She couldn't wait.

Suddenly, he stopped and pulled back from her mouth. He was breathing deeply and had a flush on his cheeks as he looked her in the eye.

And then he smiled at her.

She was so surprised she didn't know what to do. She'd never seen that expression on his face before, and the lift in his mouth did away with the distortion in his upper lip, showing off his gleaming teeth and fangs.

"I like this," he said. "You underneath me…You feel good. You're soft and warm. Do I weigh too much? Here, let me…"

As he propped himself up on his arms, his arousal pressed into her core and his grin faded quick with a gasp. It was as if he didn't like the sensation, but how could that be? He was aroused. She could feel his erection.

With a lithe move her repositioned himself so her legs were closed and his knees were on either side of them. she couldn't guess what had happened but wherever he'd gone in his head was not a good place.

"You're perfect on top of me," she sad to distract him. "Except for one thing."

"What?"

"You've stopped. And lose the shorts."

He weight came down on her immediately and his mouth went to the side of her neck. As he nipped at her skin, she pushed her head back into the pillow and bared the column of her throat. Gripping the back of his head, she urged him against her vein.

"Oh, yes…" She moaned, wanting him to feed.

He made a noise that was a no, but before the rejection could ripple through her, he was kissing his way down to her collarbone.

"I want to latch onto your breast," he said against her skin.

"Do it."

"You need to know something first."

"What?"

He lifted his head. "The night you came here…when I bathed you id did my best not to look at you. I really did. I covered you with a towel even though you were in the water."

"That was kind—"

"But when I took you out…I saw these." He lifted his hand captured one of her breasts. "I couldn't help it. I swear. I tried to allow you your modesty, but you were…I couldn't stop my eyes. Your nipple was tight from the chill of the air. So small and pink. Lovely."

He moved his thumb back and forth across her hard tip, scrambling her mind.

"It's all right," she mumbled.

"It wasn't. You were defenseless and I was wrong to look at you."

"No, you—"

He shifted, and his erection pressed into the top of her thighs. "This happened."

"What hap—Oh, you got aroused?"

His mouth tightened. "Yeah. I couldn't stop it."

She smiled a little. "But you didn't do anything right?"

"No."

"So it's okay." She arched her back and watched as his eyes clung to her breasts. "Kiss me, Dimitri. Right where you're looking. Right now."

His lips parted, and his tongue led the way as he dipped down. His mouth was warm on her flesh, and so very tentative, kissing, then sucking her nipple inside. He tugged, then ran a languid circle around her, then drew her in again…and all the while his hands stroked her waist and her hops and her legs.

How ironic that he'd worried he wouldn't be gentle. Far from brutal, he was positively reverent as he suckled, his lashed down against his cheek as he savored her, his face worshipful and rapt.

"Christ," he murmured, moving to her other breast. "I had no idea it would be like this."

"How…so? _Oh God…_ His mouth…

"I could do this forever."

She grasped his head with her hands, pulling him closer. And it took some wriggling, but she managed to split her legs and get one out from under him so that he was almost lying in the cradle of her body. She was dying to feel his arousal, except he just hovered over her.

When he pulled back she protested, but then his hands went to the insides of her thighs and he moved down her body. As he spread her legs, the mattress began to quiver underneath her.

Dimitri's whole body shook as he looked at her. "You're so delicate…and you glisten."

The first stroke of her finger down her core nearly threw her over the edge. As she let out a hoarse sound, his eyes flashed to hers and he cursed. "Damn it, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying to be careful—"

She grabbed his hand before he could take it away. "More…"

He looked doubtful for a moment. Then he touched her again. "You're perfect. And God, you're soft. I've got to know…"

He leaned down, his shoulders bunching up hard. She felt a velvet brush.

His lips.

This time when she jacked up off the bed and said his name, he just pressed another kiss to her again, and then there was the wet stroke of his tongue. As he lifted his head and swallowed, the growl of ecstasy he made stopped her heart in her chest. Their eyes met.

"Oh…Jesus…you're delicious," he said, going back down with his mouth.

He stretched out on the bed, looping his arms under her knees and overflowing the space between her thighs…a male who wasn't going anywhere for a long while. His breath was got and needy, his mouth hungry and desperate. He explored her with an erotic compulsion, licking and probing with his tongue, sucking with his lips.

When her hips bucked, one of his arms moved across her stomach, holding her in place. She lurched again as he paused without lifting his head.

"Are you okay?" he asked, raspy voice muffled, words vibrating into her core.

"Please…" It was the only thing that came to mind.

He pulled back a little, and all she could do was look at his glossy lips and think of where they had been.

"Roza, I don't think I can stop. There's this…roar in my head telling me to keep my mouth on you. How can I make this…okay for you?"

"Make me…finish me," she said hoarsely.

He blinked as if she'd surprised him. "How do I make you come?"

"Just keep doing what you're doing. Only faster."

He was quick study as he figured out what made her go wild, and he was ruthless once he discovered how to give her an orgasm. He drove her hard, watching her as she shattered apart once, twice…many times. It was as if he fed from her pleasure and was insatiable.

When he finally lifted his head, she was limp.

He looked at her gravely. "Thank you."

"God…I'm the one who should be saying that."

He shook his head. "You let an animal into the most beautiful part of you. I'm the one with the gratitude."

He pushed away from her body, that flush arousal still in his cheeks. That erection still straining.

She held her arms out to him. "Where are you going? We're not done."

As he hesitated, she remembered. She rolled over onto her stomach and braced herself up on all fours, a shameless offer. When he didn't move she looked back at him. he'd closed his eyes as if in pain, and that confused her.

"I know you only do it this way," she said softly. "That's what you told me. I'd okay with me. really." There was a long silence. "Dimitri, I want to finish this between us. I want to know you….like this."

He rubbed his face. She thought he was going to leave, but then he shifted around so he was behind her. His hands fell lightly on her hops and he urged her to one side, onto her back.

"But you only—"

"Not with you." His voice was rough. "Not like that with you."

She opened her legs, ready for him, but he just sat back on his heels.

His breath left on a shudder. "Let me get a condom."

"Why? I'm not fertile now, so you don't need one. And I want you to…finish."

His brows dropped low over his black eyes.

"Dimitri…this hasn't been enough for me, I want to be with you."

She was about to reach for him when he rose up onto his knees and brought his hands to the front of his running shorts. He fumbled with the drawstring and then pulled the elastic waistband out, and down, revealing himself.

Rose swallowed hard.

His arousal was _enormous_. A perfectly beautiful, rock-solid aberration of nature.

_Holy…Moses._ Would he even fit?

His hands trembled as he hooked the shorts under the twin weights below his erection. Then he leaned over her body, positioning himself as her core.

When she put her hand out to stroke him, he jerked away. _"No!"_ As she recoiled, he cursed. "I'm sorry…Look, just let me take care of it."

He moved his hips forward and she felt the head of him, blunt and hot, against her. His hand came behind one of knees and he stretched her leg up; then he pushed inside a little, then a little farther. As sweat bloomed over his entire body, a dark scent reached her nose. For a moment, she wondered it…

No, he couldn't be bonding with her. It wasn't in his nature.

"God…you're tight." He croaked. "Oh…Roza, I don't want to tear you up."

"Keep going. Just be slow."

Her body surged under the pressure and the stretching. Even as ready as she was he was an invasion, but she loved it, especially as his breath exploded out of his chest and he shuddered. When he was all the way in, his mouth fell open, his fangs elongating from the pleasure he felt.

She ran her hands up his shoulders, feeling the muscles and the warmth of him.

"This all right?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Rose pressed a kiss to the side of his neck and swiveled her hips. He hissed.

"Make love to me." She demanded.

He moaned and started to move like a wave on top of her, that thick, hard part of him stroking the inside of her.

"Oh, shit…" He dropped his head into her neck. His rhythm intensified, his breath shooting out of him, rushing into her ear. "Rose…shit, I'm scared…but I can't stop…"

With a groan he propped himself up on his arms and let his hips swing freely, each thrust nailing against her, pushing her farther up on the bed. She grabbed for his wrists to hold her body in place under the onslaught. As he pounded, she could feel herself getting near the edge again, and the fast he went the closer she got.

Her orgasm slammed into her core, then raced throughout her body, the force of it stretching her out so she was infinitely long and infinitely wide. The sensation lasted forever, the contractions of her inner muscles grabbing onto the part of him the penetrated her.

When she was back in her own skin again, she realized he was unmoving, completely frozen above her. Blinking away tears, she looked into his face. The hard angles of it were tense, and so was the rest of his body.

"Did I hurt you?" He asked tightly. "You cried out. Loudly."

She touched his face. "Not from pain."

"Thank God." His shoulders eased as he exhaled. "I couldn't bear to hurt you like this.

He kissed her softly. And then he withdrew and got off the bed, yanking up the shorts as he went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Rose frowned. Had he finished? He'd seemed fully erect as he'd withdrawn.

She slid out of bed and looked down. When there was nothing on the inside of her thighs, she drew on the robe and went after him, not even bothering to knock.

Dimitri's arms were propped on the sink, his head hanging low. He was breathing uneasily and looked fevered, his skin slick, his stance unnaturally stiff.

"What, _nalla_," he said in a hoarse whisper.

She stopped, unsure she'd heard him right. But she had…._Beloved._ He'd called her _beloved_.

"Why didn't you…" She couldn't seem to get the rest of the words out. "Why did you stop before you…"

When he just shook his head, she went over to him and turned him around. Through the shorts she could see that his arousal was throbbing, painfully rigid. In fact, he looked as if his whole body ached.

"Let me ease you," She said, reaching for him.

He backed against the marble wall between the shower and the sink. "No, Don't…Rose—"

She gathered the robe in her hands and started to kneel down at his feet.

"No!" He dragged her up his body.

She met him right in the eye and went for his waistband. "Let me do this for you."

He grabbed her hands and squeezed her wrists until they hurt.

"I want to do this, Dimitri," she said with strength. "Let me take care of you."

There was a long silence, and she spent the time measuring the/ sorrow and the yearning and the fear in his eyes. A chill shot through her. She couldn't believe the leap of logic her mind was taking, but she had a really vivid impression that he'd never let himself orgasm before. Or was she just jumping to conclusions?

_Whatever._ It wasn't like she was about to ask him. He was teetering on the brink of bolting, and if she said or did the wrong thing, he was going to tear out of the room.

"Dimitri, I won't hurt you… and you can be in control. We'll stop if it doesn't feel right. You can trust me."

It was a long time before his grip loosened on her wrists. And then finally he let go and set her back from his body. Haltingly, he pulled down the shorts.

The arousal shot out into the space between them.

"Just hold on to it," he said with a cracked voice.

"You. I'll hold on to you."

When she wrapped her palms around him he let out a moan, and his head fell back. God, he was hard. Hard as iron, yet surrounded by skin soft as his lips.

"You're—"

"Shh," he cut in. "No…talking. I can't…No talking."

He began to move in her grip. Slowly at first, and then with increasing urgency. He took her face in his hands and kissed her, and then his body completely took over with a wild pumping. He was going crazy, shooting higher and higher, his chest and hips so beautiful as he moved in the ancient male surging motion. Faster…faster…jerking back and forth…

Except then he reached some kind of

Plateau. He was straining, the cords of his neck nearly breaking through his skin, his body covered with sweat. But he couldn't seem to let go.

He stopped, panting. "This isn't going to work."

"Just relax. Relax and let it happen—"

"No. I need…" he took one of her hands and placed it on the sac below his arousal. "Squeeze. Squeeze hard."

Rose's eyes flashed up to his face. "What? I don't wasn't to hurt you—"

He wrapped his hand around hers like a vise and twisted their grips until he cried out. Then he held her other wrist, keeping her palm against his erection.

She struggled against him, fighting to stop the pain he was inflicting on himself, but he was pumping again. And the harder she tried to pull away, the more he crushed her hand to the most tender place on a male. Her eyes went wide and unblinking at the pain of the act, the agony he must be—

Dimitri shouted, his loud bark ricocheting around the marble until she was sure everyone in the mansion must have heard him. Then she felt the mighty jerks of his release, hot pulses dampening her hands and the front of her robe.

He sagged onto her shoulders, his massive body falling all over her. He was breathing like a freight train his muscles quivering, his big body trembling with aftershocks. When he released his hand from hers, she had to peel her palm from his testicles.

Rose was cold to the bone as she bore the weight of him.

Something ugly had sprouted between them just now, some kind of sexual evil that blurred the distinction between pleasure and pain and though it made her cruel, she wanted to get away from him. She wanted to run from the cringing awareness that she had hurt him because he'd made her and he had orgasmed because of it.

Except then his breath caught on a sob. Or at least seemed too.

She held her breath, listening. The soft sound came again, and she felt his shoulders quake.

_Oh, my God._ He was crying…

She wrapped her arms around him, reminding herself that he hadn't asked to be tortured as he'd been. Nor had he volunteered for the aftereffects.

She tried to lift his head to his him, but he fought against her, drawing her close, hiding in her hair. She cradled him, holding him and soothing him as he struggled to mask the fact that he wept. Eventually he pulled back and scrubbed his eyes with his palms. He refused to meet her eyes as he reached over and turned the shower on.

With a quick yank he stripped the robe from her body, then wedded it up and threw it into the trash.

"Wait, I like that robe—"

"I'll buy you new one."

He urged her under the water. When she fought him he picked her up easily, putting her in the spray of the water, and began to wash her hands with a panic.

"Dimitri, stop." She pulled away, but he caught her. "I'm not dirty—Dimitri, _stop_. I don't need to be cleaned because you—"

He closed his eyes. "Please…I have to do this. I can't leave you all…covered with that stuff."

"Dimitri," she snapped. "Look at me." when he did, she said, "This is not necessary."

"I don't know what else to do."

"Come back to bed with me." She shut off the water. "Hold me. Let me hold you. That's the only thing you need to do."

And frankly, she needed it, too. She was rattled to the core.

She put a towel around herself and pulled him into the bedroom. When they were under the covers together, she curled herself around him, but she was a stiff as he was. She'd thought proximity might of help. It didn't.

After a long while his voice came through the darkness. "If I had known how it had to be, I never would have allowed that to happen."

She turned her face up to his. "Was that the first time you ever came?"

The silence wasn't a surprise. That he eventually answered her was.

"Yeah."

"You've never…pleasured yourself?" she whispered, even though she knew the answer. _God_…What those years as a blood slave must have been like. All that abuse…she wanted to weep for him but knew he would feel awkward about it.

He exhaled. "I don't like to touch it at all. Frankly, I hate that it was inside of you. I want you to be in a tub, surrounded by bleach, right now."

"I love being with you. I'm glad that we laid together." It was only what had come later that she'd had difficulty with. "But about what happened in the bathroom—"

"I don't want you to be a part of that. I don't want you doing that to me so I…do that all over you."

"I liked giving you an orgasm. It's just…I care too much to hurt you. Maybe could try—"

He pulled away. "I'm sorry…I have to…I'm going to…yeah I've got some work to do."

She grabbed his arm. "What if I told you I thought you were a God?"

"I'd say you were riding a pity wave and it would piss me off."

"I'm not feeling sorry for you. I wish you'd finished inside of me, and I think you're gorgeous when you're aroused. You're thick and long, and I was dying to touch you. I still am. And I want to take you in my mouth. How about that?"

He shrugged out of her hold and got to his feel. With quick, jabbing motions, he got dressed. "If you need to cast that sex in a different light so you can deal with it, that's fine. But you're lying to yourself right now. In no time at all you're going to wake up to the fact that you're still a female of worth. And then you're going to regret the shit out of laying with me."

"I will not."

"Wait for it."

He was out the door before she could find the proper words to throw back at him.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and seethed with frustration. Then she kicked off the covers. Damn, but it was hot in this room. Or maybe she was so worked up, she'd screwed with her internal chemistry.

Unable to stay in bed, she dressed and went down the hall of statues. She didn't care where she ended up; she just had to get out and walk off some of this heat.


End file.
